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.