My bags are packed, all ready to go...

I can't believe my six months are up! Friday was my last day of teaching and it was so sad! As of tomorrow I will be homelessly wandering Taiwan, so I will be in the country enough days to get my tax break (the Taiwanese pay 20% in taxes and we only have to pay 6% if we stay in the country 180 or something like that). List of things I will be seeing:

Sun Moon Lake

Taroko Gorge

Taipei (hopefully)

It will be strange to be travelling on Christmas, but we celebrated it today. So it won't be all bad. I'll update this later with pics, etc. of our Christmas carolling and the last few days of school. I will be without Internet for a while, so this may be it for a while. But when I do get the chance, I will be able to blog about Thailand as well. It's going to be an exciting, travel-packed next couple of weeks!

Oh, and I fly home to the States on Jan. 8th, for all those who are interested.

Tak jo, ciao for now!

Kenting!

This past weekend I had the choice opportunity to get the heck out of town and enjoy myself in the incredibly cool beach town on the southern most tip of Taiwan: Kenting. Did I mention that it was pretty much awesome?

Jess, Megan and I got up at the crack of dawn (5:30 am) to catch a train to Kaohshung, and then took a taxi down to the lovely town. Well, I should say, the normally lovely town. During the winter it is common for typhoon like winds to gust out of the mountains and assault the town. And let me tell you the wind was strong enough to knock over someone's scooter (not from personal experience, I assure you).

We got a pretty sweet deal with a hotel the first night and had remarkably comfy beds. We also took advantage of the local eateries, and did not eat one single Chinese food dish! It was heavenly. The Thai food down there definitely satisfied my cravings.

Unfortunately it was kinda cold and rainy, and reminded me of our time on Green Island. The beach was so windy that the sand would blow and would feel like needles were piercing my skin. I had sand stuck to my scalp for three days, even though I rigorously shampooed it.

We were joined on Saturday by our fellow teachers, Jake and Rachelle, and hit up the National Park where we were chased by monkeys because we were disturbing their territory. Wasn't our fault that the paved trail went right through their territory. We also hit up some local hot springs, and froze our bums off on the ride home.

At night the main street turns into a huge night market full of different stands and vendors, and bungee jumping--go figure. We strolled around a bit, and then hit the hay.

Sunday we went to church in a nearby town, and then hit up some of the sights from "Cape No. 7," a really cool Taiwanese movie set in Kenting. After that we took a seemingly wild goose chase through the country side trying to find this hidden beach. And in the end we did find it. While there we ran into this group from Taichung, and took some group pictures. As Americans, people really do treat us like celebrities and always want their pictures taken with us.

The trip was complete, and it was wonderful!

Christmas Favorites--a list of sorts.

Taipei 101, the tallest building in Taiwan

Christmastime is infact here in Taiwan. It's my first time experiencing this wonderful holiday in a mostly non-Christian country. I thought that perhaps it would be hard to feel the spirit of Christmas, but I was wrong. Taiwan may not be Christian, but there is evidence of Christmas everywhere, even though it is mostly commercial. But I'm forever grateful that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is here in Taiwan, and that I can attend. Even though we may be small in number, the true feeling of Christmas is there. And I love it!

As I was thinking about this Christmas, it was hard to think about all the wonderful memories and aspects of Christmas that I love, so to celebrate, here is a list of my X-mas favorites:

Music:

• Handel's Messiah
• The First Noel
• What Child is This?
• We Three Kings
• God Bless Ye Merry Gentlemen
• Angels We Have Heard on High
• Christmas Wrapping
• Christmas is All Around Me
• Last Christmas
• Tracting in a Winter Wonderland
• All of the Charlie Brown Christmas Soundtrack

Movies:

• Joy to the World
• The Nativity
• Miracle on 34th Street
• The Bishop's Wife
• Home Alone
• Love Actually
• White Christmas
• Elf
• A Charlie Brown Christmas
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas--the old-school cartoon one

Memories:

• Seeing the Nutcracker each year with my mom and sister, Lindsey
• Performing the Nativity when I was little, and when Uncle Steve was the donkey
• Christmas caroling with a huge group of friends in high school
• Christmas street displays in Prague, while on my mission
• Christmas caroling in Ostrava
• Christmases in Arizona with my dad's family--they have all been great!
• Christmases in Washington when it actually snowed and we could go sledding
• Sending the 12 days of Christmas to my cousins while they were on their missions
• Sub for Santa
• Hot chocolate, mint ice cream, candy canes, Cinnabons, and croissants for X-mas morning
• Hearing the reindeer on the roof of our house
• Leaving cookies, carrots, and pickle for Santa and his reindeer
• Waiting at the top of the stairs for my dad to wake up so we could open our presents
• Seeing my brother
• Last Christmas with my parent's Australian friends
• Driving around and looking at all the Christmas lights

I've been so lucky! I love Christmas because I feel like everyone is a little more caring, generous, and thoughtful of others. I feel like there is a true comradary among people, that I wish would last the whole year. I'm also grateful that we have this time to focus on the birth of our Savior, who is the whole meaning behind this wonderful holiday. His life was the ultimate gift that was given, so that we can return to live with our Heavenly Father.

Merry Christmas, Joyeux Noël, a Vesele Vanoce!!!

Wiggle Time!

I don't know why I've waited so long to write these last couple of posts because they've been going on this whole semester. Anyways, in my BR class I instigated Wiggle Time. It was much needed and in the following video you will see why. I have 9 highly active and energetic children, and it's a bit difficult to keep them entertained and well-behaved for 2 1/2 hours. We've gone through a series of activities such as dance-freeze, musical chairs, red light/green light, etc. This is mostly of William, whom I have nicknamed Monkey.

I love my life!

Show and Tell...

So every Friday in my amazingly cute BR class we have show and tell. Lately my kids have forgotten to bring toys and other things from home. But this hasn't deterred them from wanting to share something with the class. As a result they have had an affinity for sharing my shoes, the garbage cans, and other randomness around the classroom.



Enjoy!

Earthquake...prepardness that is.

Earthquake preparedness people teaching our kids all about earthquake safety.

You gotta dig the red vests.

A couple of weeks ago we had the awesome experience of having an earthquake simulator come to Berhan to teach our kids all about earthquake safety. It was a much anticipated break from the boring, everyday schedule. And I have to admit, it pretty much rocked. I took my BR kids upstairs to join the 7 other classes that were going on at that time for them to hear a lecture in Chinese about earthquake safety. Then the cool part happened. We took our kids outside, across the street, and around a corner to an empty parking lot. And there stood the earthquake simulator.

My BR kids sitting and listening attentively.

Penny decided to curl up next to me.
I couldn't blame her--the lecture was getting pretty long, and I don't even know the language.

It was quite a fiasco trying to get all my kids there in one piece. William was excitedly jumping up and down exclaiming that we were going to pass his house, and pointed his house out to me every other second of our being in sight of it (it was cute, rather than annoying).

The simulator in all its glory.
I have to admit the whole thing was pretty awesome. The simulator was supposed to be like a 5.0 on the Richter scale. This video below will show it a bit more. The video has most of my kids, Dustin, and some of his kids. Some of the other students were really scared of the simulator. Our bosses' son for instance. He was so scared he started crying. But his little sister, on the other hand, was super excited to go on it.

Other pictures from the day:

Funny thing though. Yesterday, we actually had a small earthquake. I'd have to say that the earthquake simulator came at the perfect moment. And I now know how to stay safe in the case of an earthquake.

Ciao!

Lukang!

Paper lanterns, hand painted fans, and hand crafted wooden shoes, are all normal goods one would find in the little town of Lukang (pronounced Lugang). I've been trying to get there for the past 4 months I've been in Taiwan. Word on the street, or rather, rumor in the school halls has it as the best place for pictures and for suvinears.

Lukang was historically the 3rd largest city in Taiwan. That is until the early 20th century. It used to be a famous harbor, but the city refused to have the railroad gain access to its boundaries. As a result, Lugang escaped much of the modernization that destroyed most of Taipei's historical buildings, and in essence is much the same as it was 100 and something years ago.

Lukang is also home to the only person that is known as a National Treasure. Unfortunately, I have forgotten the dear man's name, but he is a National Treasure, because his craft of making and handpainting paper lanterns has become a lost art. Through him and his family, the craft has survived.

When we first got to his shop, the gentleman wasn't there, but his son was handpainting some clothes.

This design that he is painting became part of a beautiful flower. He also painted matching pair of pants with a really cool bamboo design on it. I ended up going paper lantern happy and bought four.
This one I had personalized for me, and Mom, this is a Christmas spoiler. The next lantern shown is for you.
It was only one of the amazingly awesome stops that day. We went to some really cool temples, got rained on, saw where they made insence for the temples, and also saw wooden shoes being made.
Above are these enormous steamers where they cook these roll like things with meat inside. Fenny, my Taiwanese friend, was so excited to try them. It was funny, I was excited for the shopping, and Miss Fenny was excited for all the different food she could get. Below is a video from the wooden shoe store where they fit the shoe to your foot. It's pretty much amazing!(Linds, this would be a X-mas spoiler for you, but considering I won't see you at X-mas or shortly thereafter, it may not be such a bad thing :) )


Below are some other pics of the place. Enjoy!

Halloween!!!

So I do realize that this is a few weeks late, but I still wanted to write about the fabulousness of Halloween. I have to say that the week of Halloween was treacherous, and incredibly stressful. My 3rd graders decided that they wanted to make pinatas for our Halloween activity that was to be held on Friday. They actually completed their pinatas. My 4th graders on the other hand were not so quick to complete their assignment--I ended up making 4 pinatas at the last minute. And with the humidity, let me tell you that it took forever for those suckers to dry out.

Halloween ended up being really fun. My Basic Reading class dressed up. Larson was Spiderman, and Belinda was Dracula complete with a cape made from a black trash bag--yeah, they get pretty creative over here. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go around with my kids through all the activities. Instead I helped out with the afternoon kindergarten class as they went trick or treating to the different classrooms of the school. They were very cute, but also very active. I was grateful to have my class back at the end of the day.

The Kindergartners trick or treating.

Me and Zoe.

My BR class. William, Jason, Aragon, Larson, Emily, Penny, Belinda and Becca

My third graders also go into the Halloween spirit and almost all of them dressed up. I was really glad that they were so excited about the whole ordeal. My other 2 classes were too cool for school. And they really weren't that fun.

My 3rd Graders showing off their pinatas.

Front row: Penny, Jenny, and Jacky.

Back Row: Michelle, Eve, Cheryl, Sabrina, and Brian.

Halloween night we had a girls night and went KTVing (karaoke). It was fabulous! We all wore our costumes, and got some strange looks from the locals. I also had several people come up to me and ask if they could have their picture taken with me. It was crazy! I ended up losing my voice, and had a rough time the following morning teaching. But all in all, it was definitely work it!

Why my students are so cool...

As many of you know, I teach four different classes. My Enrichment class meets from 6:40-8:40 pm Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. It's pretty laid back. Lately my students have taken to playing chicken foot, in addition to Uno, and Phase 10. Here's what my students came up with at the end of class....

Yeah. They're cool.

What is that thing?

This is what you would call a pomelo. Aragon, one of my Basic Reading students, always brings me fruit. First, it was three amazing mangos. Then last week he brought me this amazingly huge citrus.

It was incredibly good, and I'm incredibly grateful to Aragon and his awesome parents!

Happy Birthday Lindsey!

The birthday girl, Lindsey, and Rachelle.

Our little girl is all grown up! Lindsey, the youngest of our Berhan crew turned 21 in the recent past and to celebrate we took a trip to Costco (yes, we have a Costco, and it is glorious!). Lindsey was craving some Costco cake, so we took the 30 minute scooter ride to Taichung. Unfortunately, we forgot how large Costco cakes are, so we had to improvise a bit. Jake, one of the other teachers, recently found access to a scooter, and prides himself on looking Taiwanese. That's why he's all covered up in his pictures. The Taiwanese, don't like to get any sun--the whiter you are, the better. Anyways, I hope Lindsey had a fabulous birthday!

Megan and Jake.

Lindsey and Megan getting the cake home.