Staples in Life

Wanna know what I miss most about America. I've got 2 things for ya, and I bet you would never guess them.

1: Carpet, yes carpet. That lovely lush soft stuff you lucky ducks in America get the luxury of. I seriously daydream about taking off my shoes and letting my toes soak in the sweet soft goodness. Church, you know the nasty church carpet that isn't really like carpet? Oh ya you know I can't keep my shoes on at all! I bought a cheap little rug for my room the other day. I acted like I was a little girl on Christmas that had just gotten a pony for crying out loud!

2: Chhheeessse, you got that right cheese. I travel far and wide to get some decent cheese around these parts. Seriously. Costco is the only place you can get the good real deal stuff. We travel for about an hour to get there and walk a couple of miles. It's so worth it.

Yep, I guess I took for granted these precious worldly good and had to travel to Taiwan to truly appreciate them.

P.S. I've also started liking corn while I've been here. For those of you who know this is a BIG DEAL!! I've HATED corn my whole life..... weird. Maybe my mind is just more open here and i'll come home and hate it, but for the time being that stuff ROCKS!

Begining to Make Sense

For my morning class I have just two little girls that are sisters. There mom likes to take us out a couple of days a week for class to experience some real world stuff. Today was great? We went to the bakery to make and decorate some cakes! Sounds fun right? Well.... it was fun, I just may never be able to eat cake again is all. (well at least Taiwanese cake, I don't think I could EVER give up American cake)

These people are sick nazti's but umm... hello apparently they really really really don't understand the whole germ concept! We went in and started making the batter for the cake, the place was a little dirtier than I would have liked but ok none the less. Well..... I really can't describe what went on in the batter making procress. Let's just say no handwashing, LOTS of sweat LOTS, washing dishes with hoses outside, mixing batter with your hands after they were just holding the dog, letting the dog run around the bakery, flour containers that looked more the garbage containers we use for our lawn clippings, and I could go on but i'll spare you.

Now it's beginning to make very clear sense why my bowels don't agree with me about 90% of the time while we've been here! I probably will begin making all of my bread purchases at the very large local grocery store where they wear hair nets, and gloves. May not be much better but a little more peace of mind to say the least.

Thought I would just share my over grossed-out-ness with you. But minus the disgusting cleanliness factors they've got going on it was quite fun!! Now I see why the cake isn't sweet they put about half of a cup of sugar in there and seriously the guy made 7 cakes! Whoosh that a sin right there.

Magical Moon Festival!!!

Just in case you were wondering, I will be celebrating Moon Festival next September. This holiday was just FANTASTIC!! These people know how to party and it couldn't have come at a better time! Here is how our day went...

This is a party we went to last night with a couple of our students families. Ummm..... may I just ask why Americans got so freaking jipped on their whole metabolism and fat storage thing? These people can EAT!!! Really though. EAT!! Another teacher and I came late with the secretaries from our school, we got there about 7:30, but 2 of the other teachers got there at 4:30, we got home about 11:30. Ya.... long time. I know. But you know what we did basically the ENTIRE time? Oh ya, just eat. and eat. and eat. and eat. and eat. stop for fireworks. and eat. and eat. I don't understand these are the smallest people in the world, literally average weight of a grown-up in like 110, no jokie. We got jipped!!

I really love going on these home visits. It's so cool to be able to see what families are really like and be so totally and completely submeressed in their culture. I love trying their food, and let me just say I made a doofus of myself a couple of times that night. I don't know how they eat some of the stuff! There not out on the picture above but they were talking about these mushrooms and how good they were. they brought them out and set them in front of me. So what else do you think I would do? I took one and started to eat it. Well apparently that was a really stupid idea and they all busted up laughing because apparently you HAVE to COOK it before you eat it. Whoops. Secondly, yep you wouldn't think eating food would be that difficult but there was more than one instance where I made a fool of myself. Surprise surprise. They gave us some fruit, I have no idea what this fruit is called but it's specific for moon festival and it looks like a really BIG pear but the inside tastes and looks more like a grapefruit. Well, they handed me over a big ol' hunk of it, so I stuck it in my mouth. Duh! What else would you do. Well, bad idea. You have to peel the outside skin off of it and get the fruit inside the little covering thing. oops. Who knew eating food would be so difficult?

But other than that most of the food was pretty good: oyster balls, rice sausages, sausage, chicken, clam and mushroom soup, nectarines, yummy chinese chips that look like cinnanmon toast crunch, and some of thee SPICYEST food i've ever eaten! (I thought I was going to keel over, literally)

Cute little man. Kids are the same worldwide. They THRIVE on fireworks.

(like the sick short-shorts he's sportin?)

On Wednesday we went to explore the nearby city of TaiChung. What a joy. We found this cool temple. Old meets new here. I wish I would've read the history behind this puppy but un-fortunately I can't read Chinese and we have no idea what this place is, so I can't look up the history online.

I think I should definitely pursue a career in Buddha mimicking modelling.

Da da da DAh!! Cute little Buddha we found! (this picture doesn't show it too well but he is really large i'd say at least 50 ft. tall) Of course I had to give the cute little guy some lovin.

For dinner we went to this lovely restaurant at the top of the mountain in ChangHua. It was lovely and we could see all the fireworks going on for miles! it was AWESOME!! Imagine all the little families that do fireworks in their driveway but, make all of those illegal fireworks shooting in the sky! We could see them all! It was incredible.

Dinner obviously is a little difficult to order. We weren't sure what we were getting, is all I knew was chicken.... This was the first course. They really just don't get salad, i can't explain what kind of dressing was on that puppy but it was interesting, and the soup? Oh ya that's just some campbells cream of chicken soup, don't worry.

Like I said, I got chicken..... what part of the chicken that was is a mystery to all. On the bright side the broccoli and carrot was really good though!!

So there ya have it! A brief summary of the lovely Sun Moon Festival! Pretty great day i'd say. I wish we had one every week!

Throwin it out there.

So, pretty much for various reasons this week at work was. A. living. Hell. Let's just say i'm learning patience here. Sometimes it's really REallY reALLY REALLY REallY haaarrrd for me to understand the culture here. I just don't understand the whole "save face" thing. Seriously our school director will tell me something that is from our secretaries, who found out through the parents of our kids, and want me to tell another one of the teachers, and then report back to her. Umm.... really? Lets learn efficiency here people. Dear parents, write in you communication book with our kids your problem.... please don't make it go through about 5 different people, and by then of which the story is so distorted and off no one understands what's really going on because half the translators barely know English. There is an easier way. This is just a glimpse of some of the chaos that went on this week. But, ok enough of the freakin pity party. Sometimes you've just gotta throw that off of your chest!

But really, i'm still in a love affair with Taiwan. This. Place. Is. To. Good. To. Be. True. I just needed to write my anger down somewhere!

Formosa.

Alright, so I was just looking at that last post and realized how crummy is sounds. So, after our hard week I came home to this on Friday night.......

So, you're probably asking yourself "what in the devil is that?" Well, if you guessed it and knew it kudos to you! This right here is a mobile karaoke stage half semi full 'o' fun! Rolling down the street you may think this truck is full of fruit or something good like that, oh no it's even better! This puppy folds out into a FULL blown stage, flashing spot lights and all.

Yep, our nice quiet little courtyard became quite the hoppin place on Friday night. When we -came home we were greeted by a very large tent with dozens of families BBQ-ing and partying it up. At the end of the tent, and quite literally right outside of our front door was this gem. Yep, like I mentioned a while ago the Taiwanese mean business about Karaoke. And let me tell ya they've got some GREAT voices to go along with it.... not!

Of course we sang (Hey Jude to be exact) and made royal fools out of ourselves. But that makes it all the better right? After we sang a nice family gave us some shrimp. Mind you these aren't the nice little shrimp you get at home these puppies were the size of LOBSTERS! and yes.... I ate the nasty yellow and green brain head of the shrimp..... I may not be eating shrimp again for a while...

On Saturday Karyn and I decided to go to Taipei to go to the temple and do a little touristing. Here's some of what we came across.

Taiwan "art?"

(and you can't see it but there's water coming out of the head of that puppy)

I still, can't wrap my finger around what these people think reagarding their artwork.

Chiang Kai Shek Memorial. Way cool this place was GINORMOUS!!

Chian Kai Shek again. Way cool.

Notice the umbrellas? This was the welcoming of the typhoon that hit us on Sunday.

Yep, we FINALLY got our beloved typhoon. Kinda a pansy of a typhoon if you ask me though. It didn't even freaking last until Monday to give us the day off today gosh dang it! But still an experience none the less and they cancelled church yesterday because of it.

Lee-Hi Er shrrra yi

So the month of September has officially not only become the month of my birthday it is my birthday month (in which Karyn and I both get to celebrate this because it was her birthday on the 11th). Meaning, I'm going to celebrate and party all the time. Need an excuse to do something fun, this month? Well..... it's birthday month so I have no limits. This weekend goes to prove that.

Quite a while ago we decided we wanted to do something great this weekend since Saturday was Karyn's birthday! We decided what is better than the beach? Not much i tell you.

What a way to begin the trip. Just the train ride to the actual beach was fantastic. The beauty of this country never ceases to amaze me, and yet the weekend only got better.

Welcome to Wushi beach. You can't see it to well but the mountain hugs the shoreline. Taiwan has perfected the things I love the most, beach and mountain.

Yep, we went surfing. Glorious. A surf lesson was even included in the rental of the board for only about $14 bucks. Too bad the lesson was in Chinese, so it was more like Kailey and Karyn making fools of themselves trying to read body language and copy movements. Believe it or not despite my spastic, uncoordinated ridiculousness I got up several times. Go me.

After a long day of playing at the beach, without eating lunch by the time dinner time rolled around my stomach was growlin. We went to Wushi with 2 other people. One was a girl from the other school with ILP and a taiwanese boy we met here. He brought us to dinner and ordered for us, since ya know we don't read Chinese. I put my trust in him to order for us whatever. Maybe not the greatest idea, this is what we were welcomed with..... 1: Fish head soup (which included tofu) both of which I totally LOVE. Not. 2:Crab! Which was actually delicious!! But, I felt like some cave woman while eating it because they don't give you a nifty nut cracker and a little fork like they do in the U.S. Instead you have your teeth and chopsticks. Now can you imagine my struggle it was to eat this? 3: Frog legs (silver bowl) they weren't actually too bad, and i'd eaten them before. So this wasn't to weird for me? 4: Raw fish. Now I've eaten sushi before with raw fish. No, no, no no no no NO this was on a whole other realm of raw fish. Ya know at least sushi has some rice and seaweed surrounding a tiny little slice of fish. No this was a mouth full, of lip lickin raw fish. I'm willing to try anything once. Once was enough, in case you were wondering, don't give me raw fish again. I tried it once and i'm not trying it again. 5: Fried Rice. This is the one in brown with the lid on. I didn't think you could make fried rice be weird, but you can. The actual rice and taste of it wasn't bad, it was just full of little shrimp with their heads still on them. Yep, I ate shrimp head, and surprisingly I like it.

So you maybe wondering why i'm standing on top of a mountain, with a helmet on looking like a fool right? Oh, that's just because we went para-gliding. I told you birthday month, no limits.

Incredible. Fortunately unlike our surf lesson our instructors spoke English. Shew. He didn't tell me much though, all he said was run and don't sit down. Ok? So that's what I tried to do... but I think I got a little excited and sat down to quick or something.... (plus I am the worldest biggest klutz) There are some bushes just below that grass. We ran into them before we actually took off. Scared the crap out of me, but obviously i'm still alive so it was all worth it.

Meet Poo Poo, my instructor. Don't ask me why he chose to name himself Poo Poo. He spoke english pretty well, or at least pretended he did, so i'm pretty sure he knows what Poo Poo is. This picture pretty much speaks for itself. Me still freaking out because I thought I was going to die after the bushwackin we did, and Poo Poo just laughing at the stupid foreigner girl.

How can you beat, jumping off of a cliff and flying around hundreds of feet in the air, with a guy named Poo Poo, in Taiwan, with a view like this? Oh wait! You can't.

I'm embracing turning 21.

Perfect.

(Not sure why this picture is huge)

What kind of weekend to the beach is it if you don't get completely fried? Not a good one at all, so we did. We got COMPLETELY FRIED!! My legs and all, which I don't understand how this happened I swear the sun here is Ultra or something. I freaking put on 50 spf, didn't do a d**m thing. Oh, and yes at the bus station in Taipei they have coldstone, being that I'm really starting to miss some American foods, we obviously had to get some.

So, that was our weekend. Pretty darn fantastic. I'm really truly am falling in love with Taiwan. I mean it's not too hard to get used to a country like this when you can go do things like spend the most amazing days at the beach or hike in the rugged junlgy forests all in the same day. Lucky for us we can do it. Teaching is hard. Really hard. Don't get me wrong I love my kids, but by the end of the week, I need getaways like this!

This is quite the Asian Vacation

I don't even know where to begin! What a lovely week, fun filled with a whole bunch of birthday celebrations, Mcdonalds with my kids, Shitou Forest, and a who bunch of who knows what else!!

These girls are just too cute not to post! I adore these girls and they are both SO DANG SMART!! The little little one is only 3 and the other 5. The older one can speak pretty fluent and read and write, the littler one is well on her way. Even though their OVERLY OVERLY OVERLY OVERLY can I say it again? OVERLY, involved mother can make my life a living hell at times I still love them. You like that sweet hat Barbi (yes that's the little girls name) is wearing? Yup, that's the result when i get desperate to do something for art, she loved it none the less.

So, it was my 21st Birthday this week. 21. I. AM. 21. TWEEEENNNTYYY- OOONNNEE! 21. 21?How'd that happen? What the crap. I feel so old. But needless to say it was one of my best birthday's yet, even for the fact that I am half way across the world... But ,our school's owner bought this cake for me and I got to share it with my 3A class. It was rather fun, and take a look at that cake! It was BEAUTIFUL!!! I didn't really want to even eat it! The kids were adorable and some of them even brought me gifts, how they knew it was my Birthday is beyond me. But they are so sweet. My favorite gift however came from Vicky (the cute short girl with checkered shorts right next to me). She brought me in a card. The card said, " Dear TEACHER KAILEY: Happy Birthday! I am very happy, because today is your birthday. Then I can ate the cake Sincerly Vicky" It was also accompanied with an headband which she had wrapped 3 times. I never knew I would love these kids so much. But really lets be honest how can you not?!?!?

After a lovely day with my students, I came home to a REAL cake my sweet roommates had made. (Lets be honest while the Taiwanese cake was beautiful to look at, and tasted OK, it was NOT, an American cake! No sir...Not sweet at all....it had the texture of cake, they just forget to add the sugar) But then we went to this place for dinner called Pasta House that we had heard was really good. It was really good and the cutest little restaurant I think I've ever been in! Number one reason I loved this place so much: Their food had cheese on it. Not this fake velveta crap you get everywhere else here, REAL cheese people. Oowey goowey melted cheese, that right there made my night! But I do have to mention the oddness of my dish. I ordered a chicken bake. It looks really good right? But what was below that good looking cheese goodness was somewhat a mystery. This is my interpretation of what was inside: you can't see it but i'm 99.999% sure that the chicken on there was chicken from KFC. No joke. The sauce was a mix of soy sauce and BBQ sauce, the sauce had ham, bacon, peppers, and sweet potatoes in it...... topped with some melted cheese. Odd.... Ya they don't quite get Italian here. But I must say that it was good...... have I lost my mind? I don't know, maybe i'm just real american food mal-nourished. But I enjoyed it. To top the night off, there was another person's birthday at the restaurant, oh and did I mention it had live music? ya it did.... So he sang he a song and topped it off with some fireworks out the front window.... Can't see that in America.....

P.S. though it would be something that I would do I'm NOT flipping off the camera. I was doing the traditional Taiwanese peace sign, somehow my hand was turned just right so my other finger is hidden....

I was lucky enough to spend Friday night with my Super students (We choose a couple of our best students every month and then they get to go eat with us) at what other than Mccy dee's!! Woohoo!!

I tell these kids, "do a silly face" that's what they pull.... LAME-O's!

So one of my students parents, Kitty invited us for to go to Shitou Forest with them. Words can't capture this place, even pictures don't come CLOSE to giving it justice, it was magically beautiful!!

George of the jungle land? I think yes!! Notice, Kitty there in her Hello Kitty shirt, hat, and you can't see these but shoes, and that purse was too. This is not a one time thing either, it's her daily attire, she LOVES hello kitty. Heck her name used to be Cindy but she changed it to Kitty because she liked it more! Now there is some love and devotion there.

Bet you can't recognize what kind of plant i'm "holding" there in my hand can ya? A FERN!!! A freaking fern......That;s Kitty right next to it, and she's a good 5'2. These things were tree's, not ferns!! I swear when I think of a fern and I think of a dinky little house plant, not a bloody tree!!

And our day just keeps getting better.... Here we have the tree walk! So the trees here are much different than they are at home and it's just a real long stump until the very top where it then has the fluff. Well these people wanted us to be able to walk in that fluff so they built that sweet birdge thang! It was 7 stories high and a big long pathway that went through the trees for a while. It was so cool.

Picture of Kitty and her parents, they are great people!! I wish you could see the scenery better, it seriosuly is breathtaking! But mid-day the fog and a big ol' honkin storm rolled in

Taiwan knows beauty.... and how to use bamboo.... REALLY WELL!! Everything is made out of bamboo it seems like, including that bridge.

Oh, it did dare throw in a suspension bridge. swaying in the wind and all.

This is how we ended our day at Shitou, pretty great i'd say.

Yep, Shitou was pretty fantastic and to top it off on the way home we stopped by a pineapple cake bakery. Pineapple cake is HUGE in Taiwan. And it. is. DELICIOUS!! I can't even describe it, other than it's goodness. We also stopped at a dairy farm. Weird to see cows here, they all got giddy when they saw the cows. I could've cared less. But I did get some centipede plaster there. Bet ya can't guess what that used for can ya? Well, supposedly it's some great anti-itch cream. To be honest I don't really know what's in it either.

So there's the story of my fantastic Birthday week!! Now i'm off to spend 8 grueling hours at church.