Sun Moon Lake

On the 18^th, I decided to head north to visit the popular site, Sun Moon Lake. While the scenery was beautiful, I didn’t enjoy the experience as much as I should have. First of all… it took FOREVER to get there. I was told the wrong train station, so I got off one city too early then had to wait forever for the next train. When I got there, it was an hour and a half bus ride to Sun Moon Lake. I left my house at 9:00 a.m. and didn’t get there until 3:00 p.m. The last bus leaves at 6 headed back so I didn’t have much time. I got on the “around the lake” bus and went to the tramway where you could take a tram to some aboriginal village. That was beautiful and almost made up for the long trip. However, when we got to the top, I couldn’t buy a ticket to the village so I pretty much waited in line forever for a 5 minute trip. Oh well… I took this picture while I was up there.

Once back down, I immediately headed for the shuttle bus and barely caught the last one. It was SOOO crowded, but I finally made it back and caught the HSR back since it was so late. When I got home, I took the HSR shuttle bus because it was faster than the train. Then I took a cab to where my scooter was parked. When I stopped to get dinner (at 10:00 p.m.) I realized that I had lost my wallet… And that pretty much sums up the trip. I spent a bunch of money and didn’t manage to do a whole lot and lost my wallet with all my important identification and cards. But I am working on getting everything replaced, so no real harm done.

Birthday, Alicia and Earthquake

Ok… so it has been a while since I made a post. So this will include a lot of information. 

- My 25^th Birthday. My birthday was very enjoyeable. I got to Skype with my parents and Cassie in the morning before heading to work. I worked a little bit there and was presented with a cake by my precious 11^th grade PE class. They are seriously the sweetest kids ever. Then the students had an assembly. After the assembly all the PE students surrounded me and sang to me. Then of course they rushed at me, picked me up and threw me into the air. I’m not sure why they think this is so much fun, but they do. After the assembly, I got a little work done before all of the faculty and staff went to Cigu for a  great lunch. I guess it was a kind of “thank you” lunch. It was very yummy. Then we went back to the school and went home. I went to Bus-7 and did some work for the next day of school. Then I went to Teddy and Vanessa’s house for dinner and fun. Vanessa made me a cake and we sat around and had fun. It was very enjoyable.

-          School has been very interesting. The school has changed the way I teach so I now have all of the junior high with a translator instead of with the English teachers. While this is an improvement in some ways, it is also rather difficult because the students are not as well behaved without their teacher in the room. The first week, we talked about Valentine’s Day and made Valentines for friends and family. The second week, we made dictionaries and ID nametags. Last week, we read a part of the story of Mulan. That didn’t go very well. This week, we are playing BINGO with vocabulary words. And that is just the junior high. The high school is wonderful as always. This week with the 11^th grade, we are teaching how to read a recipe. And next week we will actually bake cookies… We’ll see how it goes. 

-          I have been leading small group now while our leader Kevin is away on a mission trip to South Africa. It has gone very well, but I am realizing how much work it is to prepare for every week. Soon I will be leading my own group so it will be a longtime thing.

-          I am moving! God has really answered my prayers this time in a way I never would have expected. Kevin got me in contact with a girl named Amanda Shu-Hua Wang a few weeks back. She wanted to move back to Tainan but wasn’t sure when. We discussed living together but I we both assumed it would be much later before that could possibly happen. Well last week I got a message from her. She had given notice and would be moving in April. Also  she found a house through a friend that is free. FREE!! It is farther away from my school than I had originally wanted and the house is for sale, so we might not be there too long, but still… free… I am so excited. We went and checked it out this past weekend. It is lovely and I am very excited about having a godly housemate and a great house to live in. We will probably move around the end of March.

-          Alicia came to visit me this weekend. It was so nice to see her and get to show her around my city. Although it was VERY cold and not the best weather, at least it didn’t rain. We shared several cold scooter rides (her first), hot drinks and much laughter. It was so great to show her my church and experience life with her. On Sunday while she was here, I experienced my first earthquake! During our baptism service, a 5.1 earthquake shook the building. We were on the 10^th floor and it was a bir scary. The building just felt like it was moving around – dancing a little jig. I was so happy she was there cause I grabbed her hand and just held on. Having her was such a blessing.

 

Fireworks Festival

 February 6 was the end of the Lantern Festival. There was a large Fireworks festival at a temple very near my home, so Zoe and Amanda took Robyn and I. It was so much fun! It was also very very crowded which is unusual for this area of Tainan. I didn't know what to do! I have never seen this much traffic near my home before! We drove our scooters as close as possible, then walked the rest of the way. We had some dinner from one of the food stands and then got very very close to watch the fireworks. They were beautiful and went on FOREVER. Now.. I thought Disneyworld had a long display. They don 't have anything on Asia. After the main display, it got down to the fun part. Large "beehives" were carried into the middle of the crowd and bascially shot fireworks out into the crowd. People brought large pieces of plastic to hide behind. We however... had a student and an umbrella... It worked though. I did get hit in the arm once but it didn't burn or anything. It just felt like I got hit by a ball. It was so much fun and terrifying at the same time! Here are some pictures from the night.

Sweet Home Alabama

My vacation to Sweet Home Alabama was so amazing. Home is always a great place to be, and this was no exception. 

After a very, very long plane ride, I arrived in Detroit only to miss my connection to Birmingham because  we left late and customs took a very long time to go through. At this point, exhausted and overwhelmed to be back in America, I just wanted to get home. My sweet father made sure I was on the quickest plane home which ended up being a plane to Atlanta. He, my mom and Cassie (she lives with my parents and therefore is my new sister) met me in Atlanta. We drove straight to Chik-fil-a where I devoured some of their yummy goodness. We also had to make a Wal-Mart run since my suitcase got lost somewhere and I had no deodorant or makeup. I then crashed into my nice soft bed (well technically Judson’s bed) and slept like the dead. 

The next few days consisted of Church, Mexican food, Wal-mart runs, shopping and a trip to Birmingham with Cassie to pick up my long lost suitcase. 

On Tuesday, I headed to Thomasville to see my drama babies practice for Little Women. It was so fun to see them. I surprised most of them and got tackled for my efforts! On Wednesday I pampered myself with a pedicure, new haircut and BBQ lunch with Brandi. Then I took a deep breath and headed to Thomasville High School. This was a very hard step for me because it was the first time I had been back since the end of school. It ended up being very good. I think I got some closure and realized just how much I enjoy my current job. I really enjoyed seeing some of the teachers and students. Then Nolie Ramsey and I spent a few hours of girl time talking and catching up. Then it was time to go to church. One of the things that I miss more than anything is Thomasville Baptist Church. The people there truly love me and I miss them. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the youth and being in Choir practice again. Thursday, I got up and went to THS again to see the few people I missed the first time around. Then I went to and hung out with Karen while the storms raged.  When the storms subsided, I headed to Birmingham.

I got to Birmingham and met my dear Camille at Barnes and Noble. We went and had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and just talked and talked and talked. I love her so very much. At Barnes and Noble, we bought each other birthday presents and had a good time. Then I went to Mallory’s house and hung out with her. We watched Courageous and just talked. Friday, she took the day off so we could hang out. We had breakfast and just hung out. We painted Canvases, watched more movies, went for a walk, made cookies and dinner and talked. Spending this time with friends is one of the things I truly miss the most.

Friday night, I headed home to see my brother and his girlfriend, Anna. Judson literally jumped on top of me when I got home. Saturday, we had a big family and friends party that was fun and I got to see just about everyone in my life. 

And again, the next few days consisted of good sleep, shopping, baking cookies with Cassie, fake Chinese food, more Wal-Mart runs and trying to stuff all my stuff into my suitcases. I ate so much good food, I’m sure I gained 10 pounds.

Thursday morning, we got up very very early and headed to Birmingham. 30 something hours later, I arrived in Taiwan.

FET Inservice in Taipei

Wow! Time has flown by. I had a very enjoyable time at my Inservice with the other Foreign English teachers in Taipei January 18-20.  

We arrived in time for lunch. After lunch, Andrew Stewart did his presentation on the differences between American and Taiwanese schools. Then it was my turn. Thankfully, I did well. My presentation went smoothly and nothing messed up. I actually managed to fill up the whole time. Then we heard from Lori, Maria, Ella and Theresa. Each presentation was done very well and I learned a lot from them. Then Professor Chen made us stand in a circle and say one thing we were impressed with from the presentations. All of mine were about how much time I spend with the students or about my pen pal project.

After that, we had dinner and some of us ventured out on the town. When we go back, we found the Karaoke room and had a great time belting out some tunes. 

The next day we heard from Rose, Crystal, Allen, Aaron and Enid. Joy was supposed to go, but had technical difficulties, so Allen volunteered to go in her place. Lina was all over this and called Allen, Joy’s knight in shining armor! Previously, she had informed Allen and I that we were soul mates.

 After lunch, we hit the road for our cultural exploration. I wasn’t feeling that great so the first thing we did (the puppet museum) I stayed in the lobby. It ended up being really nice. I had a nice conversation with this cute old man from Georgia and then had a nice chat with Ella and Theresa. The puppets were kinda scary looking and I just wasn’t all that interested. After that we went to Taipei 101 which was really cool. But the most fun part was that Allen and Joy decided to enter Ellen Degeneres’ Dance Dare. So basically Allen followed unsuspecting Taiwanese people around and danced behind them. It was hilarious. We then had dinner and headed back to the dorm.

The last day we heard from James, Christine, Jessica and Joy. After lunch, we went our respective ways. Rose and I went to the Novatel Hotel at the Taoyuan airport. We shared a hotel room before heading our separate ways on Saturday morning.

 At first I was dreading the Inservice, but it was so good to see everyone and hear about their experiences. I loved our little family reunion!