Thanksgiving of Champions

 It's so weird. I CANNOT figure out time here. Seriously. I don't know how in the devil it got to be November and now on the cusp of December. In my mind it's still Mid-July back home. Which i guess is a really good thing right now, because it's not making me miss the holidays really at all. That being said we still wanted to do something for Thanksgiving.We went back to our restaurant Tasty. It was so Tasty, here's a play-by-play of my meal. (complete with Beautiful Karyn complimenting all the pictures)

Course 1: 

Asparagus and shrimp.

Dipped in the most delicious sauce.

My tummy is feeling good after this one.

Course 2:

Cheese Potato Mushroom something on bread.

My taste buds are one fire. 

Stomach going strong.

Course 3:

Romain Salad.

So, good.

I'm a salad gall if you guys hadn't noticed.

Taiwanese do not like their salad.

This was a RARE special occasion.

My mouth was loving it.

My stomach?

Not hungry by any means.

But I keep going.

(it's really hard to see, but do you see a small red dot on the right-hand corner? That's my big Buddha, only completed the whole Thanksgiving in Taiwan experience having a clear view of him all through dinner)

Course 4:

Pumpkin Soup.

I may not of had pumpkin pie, 

but I had pumpkin soup.

and it was DELICIOUS.

I'm starting to slow down a little at this point.

Course 5:

Swata (complete with a candied cranberry on top)

Icy shots of pure goodness.

It's basically just icy lemonade.

to cleanse the pallet of course.

The waiter kept refilling them for me though.

and i kept drinking.

more than I perhaps should have.

it was just so good.

I'm getting full.

Course 6:

The Main Dish.

Steak (if that what you can call it. let's just say they don't do steak here. It was more like roast beef you cook in a crock pot.), some yummy white fish, and calamari 

I never thought I would like calamari.

Ever.

This stuff.

It's good.

Even you doubters would like it too.

Notice the lovely array of about 5 spices and sauces I could choose from.

I'm really full now.

Like couldn't even finish 1/3 of it.

I had to save room though..

Course 7:

Mango smoothie.

Simply put

Delicious.

I'm in love with not only fresh mango's

but any sort of mango flavor:

dried, frozen, candied, artificial

whatever, i'll take it.

Course 8:

Chocolate Bag

the creme de la creme

they put chocolate inside that crepe like bag

fry it up

melt the chocolate

put it over some ice cream

and let kailey experience heaven on earth.

seriously though. 

words don't accurately describe the hazlenuty goodness 

chocolate.

PARADISE!

No matter how full i get.

I can ALWAYS

ALWAYS.

make room for that.

Love.

 It easier for me to keep track of these if I break them up a little.So in case you couldn't notice. I did.

I just wanted to share what a student brought in for me after my accident.She's so adorable and brought me this as a get well present. Inside the card it read:

" to : kailey

form: cindy

11/24

dear Teacher Kailey:

I NO You are get Boom,

get well!!

Cindy :)"

Now that is one thoughtfully ADORABLE child.

It might just break my heart a smidgen to say goodbye to some of these kids.

Might just break it A LOT!

One Damn Big, Super BIG wind damper.

I've been looking forward to this weekend, for how long now? A while I tell you. I had high expectations, and it met them. Everyone you talk to around these parts tell you the National Palace Museum is a must see for Taiwan. So we went.

Just some more random Taiwan sculptures on the way to the temple. Obviously if you're going to put a statue of a polar bear you need a seashell (I know it's hard to see) and dolphin necks poppin out. Are you an idiot?

This is THEE place. Thee beloved National palace Museum. Complete with a picture of one rocking man. Hey, they have taken hundreds, yes HUNDREDS, of pictures of me. I can take a couple of them right?

*don't be surprised if I come home with a staring issue. It's come to my attention that the Taiwanese have taught me to stare. Not staring in a secreative way. FULL on non-discrete staring people. so i apologize in advance.*

You aren't allowed to take picture inside. Holy Molley, this place is like the Vatican of Asian art. Seriously. A man by the name of Chian-kai-Shek came here from China and brought TONS of belongings with him. 65,000 pieces to be exact. They change out some of the exhibits yearly, some every 6 months, and have enough to last 60 YEARS!!! Some of it dates back to 3rd and 4th century B.C.

And don't you worry I am officially in the going-home-soon mindset. Meaning I don't just look at things and think, "oh that would be cool to buy, but i'll keep looking." No sir. I BUY things and LOTS of it. At this rate i'll come home with about 65,000 pieces of Asian goodness. Lucky for you guys I must say. 

A couple of posts ago I talked about how a large majority of the streets are above with city below. Here is a prime example of it while we were in Taipei. Still is so weird. You have no idea the crampness for space it is here. My eyes ache because the majority of the time I can only see 2 blocks ahead of me. I never would of guessed I would CRAVE just looking far in the distance so much. 

Last time we went to Taipei 101 we didn't have time to go up. This time we did. It was all decked out for Christmas and all, even Christmas Music. It was like i was back in good old Layton Hills Mall or something. (Notice the bags? Ya we did some shopping and carting those puppies around all day was NO easy task I tell you.

Taipei 101 on New Years. We're not sure if we are going to be able to make it in time to go this year. But this'll do for now. Can you imagine how COOL that would be in real life though? 

(Yes I realize my legs are awkwardly looking like i'm in a squatter position or something. I don't know what I was trying to achieve there.)

This. I think we were really tired but this made our trip. You can't get out of the place without looking at the super big wind damper.

Have you ever seen a Super Big wind damper before? Well.... ha I pity you. Quite a stunning spectacle. It's just such a damn big super big wind damper, I know.

Oh!!! That's how you're supposed to use it! Gosh i've been wrong ALL of these YEARS! My real concern is, obviously there must have been some sort of problem to even have the idea to make the sign in the first place. Generally public toilets have squatters, but seriously people you don't know that the hole is for your business? You'd go on the floor in front of it?

And that was the end of our lovely trip to Taipei. Taipei is a grand city people! Seriously and the majority of people speak English and speak it WELL!! Not lie there were at LEAST 5 times when we obviously were confused or lost looking at a map and pointing around and someone came up to us to help. They all would spoke UNDERSTANDABLE great English.

These our some of our students and friends. (the girl in the coral is the one who just got baptized) They came over tonight and taught us how to make some Taiwanese noodles. They were delicious, so prepare yourselves for when I come home. You too will be trying them. (that is if I can muster up the ingredients at an Asian market) In return we taught them how to make chocolate chip cookies. They were so amused and got such a kick out of rolling the dough. It's so fun! starting this week we are going to do it every Sunday. I only wish we would've started that tradition 5 months ago.... 

DURN. 

Some things just never will change, well kinda....

I'm going to be honest with you, my life on the weekdays is usually pretty dang un-eventful and monotonous. NOT this week! I'll start out with the glorious events of yesterday. So you know i've been teaching a college class. Well the classes we teach are all the student athletes, and this week was their athletic week! On Tuesday afternoon they had a show and invited us to go. So we did. (luckily the wee ones have school late that day so we don't teach until 5ish) Here is part of the show that they put on.....

just some Taiwanese males showing off there sick muscles! Ya be jealous their not your students. 

Two of my students, Becky and Jacob. I with Jacob could speak fluent English with all of my heart. He is absolutely OUT OF CONTROL! He likes to yell my name REALLY loud every time I see him and talks and sings louder than any person I know. You guys would all get such a kick out of him. 

So... we were a smidge late for their show and missed part of the tae-kwon-doe segment. The dean of the athletic department noticed we were late and had them put on a private show just for us!

These guys have got talent! Above, some kid came running and bounced off the dude in the white standing and broke a board the guy was holding on the other guys shoulders (did that just make any sense, I think I could get a little more wordy if you'd like.)

And here this kid came and did some sweet front flip and broke a couple of the boards along the way. 

And of course no show would be complete without them showing us a thing or two. Ya I broke that board..... i'm tough I know. A little more than POSITIVE they bent it for me to break.

Making a complete and utter fool of myself. This guy had us saying HA HA HA with out punches and everything. Lets just say a couple of my student were rolling around and slapping the ground they were laughing so hard. Teaching them next week otta be interesting..... I already sing and dance like a banchi in front of them in class. Now, now i've really lost all my dignity.

The whole team.

I must mention also, later that night they invited us to some activites too! I don't have any pictures however. BUT we got to do some archery, which was pretty sweet. They also did this freaky fitness test which told be things about my body fat, muscle composition, and other things I quite frankly never wanted to know. But on the plus side we took a balance test. Guess what??!?! I RANKED SUPER HIGH. HA little more coordinated than you all thought after all.

But with that said, you'll be amused by what happened today.....

This. Wanna hear what happened? Sure ya do.

You think Utah is bad about all of the dang road construction going on? Think again, I truly believe Taiwan has them beat. They've been laying some pipe and literally EVERY SINGLE road they have dug up in the ENTIRE city. It's a mess.

I go have to go through an intersection to get to the school everyday. It's a big one and has 4 roads all coming together. So this morning I was riding my bike to school. While riding you have three choices at that intersection: take a sharp right, an easy right, or go straight. Usually I take the easy right but the road is closed because of construction.

I'm just minding my own business pumping through the intersection when BAM! Some lady apparently decided I wanted to go down the closed street or something that bashed right into me! Her scooter and my bike were connected for a second. In my mind I thought oh, ok ok i'll be ok i'm not going to fall. URRR wrong. Biffed it. Hard. I don't even really know what happened is all I remember was laying in the middle of the intersection wanting to pass out. While laying there I realized, oh my heck I"M IN THE MIDDLE OF THE INTERSECTION. The other lady pulled out and was waiting for me. I hobbled to the end and assessed the damage. Can you imagine this clearly in your mind? Kailey getting nailed in an intersection is enough as it is. Let me remind you i'm  in Taiwan. So lets just say it caused quite the scene. I had no idea what in the devil anyone was saying, so the only best solution I knew of was to get back on my bike, which still works fortunately, and ride away.

I got to the school and our cook was so cute. She was ticked the lady didn't give me money! and kept saying "she give you money!" But anyways they took me to the doctor. I must admit I NEVER wanted to go to the doctor office here, But I didn't have much of a choice. let's just say it's much different than in America and not quite as clean.... but they got err done. I got some stitches in my foot (i have no clue how many because I literally was about to pass out so they had me laying down and I couldn't see anything) cleaned out my road rash, which hurt like the devil, they also gave me some interesting medicine that i'm supposed to take three times a day..... If i was in America I wouldn't do it. here i'm taking those puppies, I'm NOT getting an infection.

Here's a picture of the battle wounds, and how the doctor fixed me up.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Weird. We're going back to that restaurant Tasty which gives you a 7 course meal. Not too shabby of a substitute i'd say. 

Call to the Wild

Kitty's family did it again. From the incredible 7 course meal at Tasty, the fun day in Shitou, and now our recent adventure, this cute little family is the best! I'm going to be perfectly honest i've seen lots of cool things in Taiwan, lots. But this could be one of my favorite day trips so far. (not sure if anything will beat Green Island though). 

We started out bright and early this morning and drove all the way in the bugger to the top of the mountain. This was not only glorious to get out and see the amazing beauty Taiwan has to offer but to get out of the DISGUSTING air! I can't take breathing in this grotty smoggy, death ridden soup much longer. Seriously. It's disgusting. No words can accurately describe the fog like sewer air mixed with the worse campfire smoke ever that I inhale  each and everyday! So with that said..... it was a lovely little break!

Chillin at the top, above the clouds. Glorious 

Taiwan and it's beauty. This pictures don'e even make it look that great. You should all just hop on over to Taiwan so you can really believe and experience what I am talking about. 

Say hello to the Sky Bridge. This thing was hmmm.... how would you put it? TOTALLY AWESOME!!!! Probably the craziest suspension bridge I've ever seen in my entire life. It litterly hugs the cliffs. To get to this puppy you have to climb jillions, seriously. Jiliions, of stairs even so steep at times they have spiral stairs. No lie. But oh baby oh are my sore knees now were SO worth every single step! It was really really cool and was over this super steep rocky gorge. 

Who is this man you ask? Oh that's just George Kitty's dad and probably the greatest Taiwanese man alive. I think because he and his wife lived in the US for a while they can understand our culture a little better and DEFINITELY some of ours rubbed off on him. I can't remember exactly why he was posing so ridiculously but he's great. I'm telling you, you all just need to pack up and come to Taiwan I don't care how good of a writer anyone is. No one. Nobody. Not one single person, can accurately depict this place and the people here. 

Another little baby suspension bridge. Not really that cool or nearly as grand as the other one. But somehow, I don't really know how but I caught this gem of a picture. (or at least I think so) Let me tell ya though unlike the other one (which you would think this would be the opposite) but this puppy SWAYED! every freakin step you took was like you were walking on a canoe in the water. 

Kitty and her mom. I look like a wholly mammoth compared to these tiny people. 

Ya know I may not be home for the whole Christmas deal. But take a look at these poinsettia's. There MASSIVE! 

On our way home we stopped at this town called JiJi. It was pretty cool touristy town that was hit really hard by a really big earthquake they had quite a few years ago! This temple was super cool though, it literally just collapsed, like STRAIGHT DOWN, didn't even crack the roofs or anything. Kinda cool looking.

So there ya have it folks.

Campity Camper

I truly apologize for not updating this week and to be honest I'm really not in the mood to write right now. But, here's a brief synopsis.... so as you know we went camping this weekend. Uhhh... it was fun? Despite the fact that I'm not the biggest camper in the world. Ok, well maybe if you're going somewhere cool where you can actually enjoy nature I don't mind it. But, really people why in the ell do you want to go camping at some playground park area with running toilets, swimming pools, and not even any hiking trails.... to me it's just down right STUPID!! I'll go have my fun for the day and then go back home... simple as that. No D*** tent to set up, no sleeping on a rock solid floor, and air conditioning, yes sir i'll take that.  And to top it all off it rained the entire weekend.... mind you there were 10 small children with us.... I know you're really green with jealousy right now! But all-in-all it really wasn't that bad, i'm making it sound much worse! It was definitely a great cultural experience. I'll let the pictures explain the rest...... (so much for brief eh?)

The cute mother of our 2 students and our secretary who came along also! American camping food consists of all the classics hot dogs, hamburgers, beans, chips, snacks, pop, you name it. Here... notice the wok, cabbage, and chicken parts on that plate (of which I can't even describe nor want to know what part of the chicken it was I exactly ate) pumello, and corn soup for breakfast, not too different. 

Oh nothing just setting up our camp under a pavillion. Of which I've never been so grateful, that would've made for one miserable night and day in the rain let me tell ya!

Meet Barbi. I got the spend the whole weekend with this. 

And Eilleen, such a little dork. 

We were getting ready for bed and they came into our tent. Barbi took someone's book of Mormon and started pretending like she was reading it and telling us bedtime stories. It was probably thee most adorable little thing EVER!

Just gnawing on some good old sugar cane. No starbursts and skittles for these people. They keep it real.  

On Sunday we packed up and went to these super cool hot springs. They had clay in them and boy howdy we had some fun with that. (I wish the picture showed it better but, they had me looking GOOD!) oh and notice the swim caps? EVERYONE here EVERYONE wears them, and speedos too.... I have no clue why. Seriously though a matching swim cap comes with every swimsuit, male and female. 

So, before we left our school director told us we were going to a tower factory. We had no idea what in the devil that meant but ya know, i'm really getting used to never having  a clue as to what is going on so we just went with it! When we got there it was a TOWEL factory, hello!

These people mean business with their towel decorations. 

I'm going to make this for Festival of Tree's next year. It'll make BANK!

So there ya have it folks so much for short! But that's how the Taiwanese camp.... not really camping if you ask me, but we really did have a grand old time!

Saturday we're going with Kitty's family to this sky bridge. I'm stoked.

Weird?

So, i'm sitting here waiting for my cookies to bake, which let me tell you is no speedy thing in our toaster oven. And I look down and see this. Do you know what this is? Let's just say if you ever asked a child here, "what color is an orange, or lemon for that matter", they say green. What the? When I first got here I was so blown away by it. Now.... completely normal, but when I stop to think about it... it really is weird. Way weird. I can't tell the difference between oranges (which this is an unusually large one, usually they really are the size of a lemon) lemons, and limes. Not kidding it's just a guessing game at the market. At least you know you're getting something citrus right?

While still bored sitting in the kitchen, it's been over a half hour now for one batch ONE, I start looking around and bam! I see this..... 

Our FULL size fire extinguisher. 

So ya know it has crossed my mind a couple of times that I don't know what in the devil we would do if there were some sort of disaster that were to happen. Seriously I'd already be a wreck in America if some sort of thing happened, but here, holy smokes..... It would soooo not be good. 

Apparently our cute little guards at our apartment complex got the same idea. Seriously these guys are so cute they wave at us everyday and keep a pretty dang good tabs on us too! I love being greeted by their cute chinglish "good morning" no matter what time of day it is. 

But anyways our doorbell rang the other night. We were greeted by a guard with this baby.... One would think maybe their just giving one to everyone in the building. No, that's not the case this thing is pretty dusty. I don't know why either but i take great pleasure in the fact that it's a FULL SIZE fire extinguisher. Seriously weighs 25 pounds. 

Please just pray we NEVER need to use it. 

So, there's my boredom spheel. oh and the reason I'm making cookies is because we're going camping this weekend. With our kids. Who's parents don't really speak that good of english. and 20 of their friends. i'm reeeaaalll excited.... (please sense sarcasm here.)

I'm sure i'll have some stories to tell.