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.

HallowGiving.

          Bet ya don't know what hallowgiving is do ya? Let alone celebrated it. Well oh well you ARE missing out. Sucker. So I don't know what it is about Americans but we seem to have thing thing where it's ok to celebrate Halloween for weeks in advance but the day that it's over, the decorations come down and all Halloween related items are up for clearance. Well that really is a shame, in Taiwan this is not such the case. In fact they like to throw in Thanksgiving to butte, hence Halloween + Thanksgiving = HALLOWGIVING! Jealous yet? You should be. If not, let me add that they had a turkey and haunted house too, the whole nine yards I tell ya. Probably the sweetest ward party I've ever been to. EVER. 

          So, how did we get invited to attend such a glorious event you ask? Well, one of our students from our college class got baptized on Saturday. (not sure if i've mention this before but, yes. I teach a college class. It is fabulous! Associate Professor Kailey Jean Larsen of National Chang Hua University of Education. Sounds like a joke i know, but it's real life I swear!) After we attended her beautiful baptism, they invited us to go to their ward party. So we did, and that's where all of the greatness happened. 

From now on out my friends, the first weekend in November we WILL be celebrating Hallowgiving. Have your party pants washed and ready, it'll be the party of the year! Maybe, just maybe i'll throw in a turkey, sushi, whole mini-octopus, and egg drop soup just to make it really realistic....

     

In the middle is one of our cute students Tiffany, who had just been baptized. Apparently something was really funny at the moment too.

So, my thoughts are just a little bit bazerk here today and now we're going to back track a little bit. As far as the weekdays, everything was pretty much exactly the same. Minus some ridiculous comments and suggestions given by some certain people that make my life a living, you know what. But, we won't get into that here. Friday night we got the pleasure of going with our super students to McDonald's again. Which is always such a pleasure. 

Saturday morning. Saturday morning, was just oh so lovely. So there is this lake in Taiwan called Sun Moon Lake. EVERYONE talks about, so Anna and I decided to take a little trip out of town. It was lovely, not only the scenery but just to get out of town and breathe some fresh air. Not even kidding you my throat has been feeling like someone took a cheese grater to it or something this last week. While we were there, my throat did not hurt at all. When we got back, guess what? My throat hurt again, no exaggeration. I really am going to die 6 years early for living here for 6 months. I read somewhere that the air here is something like 15 to 100 times (can't remember exactly, but it's bad alright cut me a break) WORSE air days in L.A. disgusting I tell you, the inversion in Utah sounds real good right now.

But here are some pictures of the lake and our little adventure

This would be their "trails" in Taiwan. The people all claim here that they love the outdoors. But really they're all just a bunch of pansies. 

I love the little Asian fishing boats. 

Everybody's been to a trout farm in their life, but how many of you have been to a Coi fish farm? Intense too, I tell you. Look at that net they use!

While not quite getting Thanksgiving and Halloween, they also really don't understand Christmas. They leave Christmas decorations up year round!

Just some ladies doing Tai Chi on the side of the "trail"

Okay, so I must tell you about this rock. I'm still yet to discover exactly what this puppy says but it must say something really good! There are rocks like this all over the place at Sun Moon Lake but for whatever reason this one was ultra special. Notice how you had to line up to get a picture with the rock? 

Obviously, with a rock that great we had to get a picture with it! Maybe it will bring me good fortune for life or something.... i'll hope so. 

That "island" was pretty cool they made it out like the stuff you have docks on and just had the plants growing right in the water. 

Taiwan Touch Your Heart. It's like their BIG tourist motto logo majig that's all over the place. 

So, weird random fact. All of their highways are up on bridges like this, and some will have two or three roads beneath them. It's really odd and when your driving in the city, especially Taipei you just drive right on top of the town. It's so odd, i'm not sure why they do it. To save space I suppose? If you have any idea why please let me know.

I also must mention  one last thing. We also went to the Chinese branch again this Sunday to see Tiffany get confirmed. After she was confirmed the ward counselor dude called us up on stand to introduce ourselves and bear our testimonies. Interesting. So after going to that we still had to go to our English branch. I had to teach the lesson in relief society today and we were in somewhat of a hurry. Well..... we rushed to the train station. Got on a train. Going the wrong way. Crap. So, needless to say I didn't give my lesson today. Oops.

There ya have it. Taiwan is great.

Kauila(HAPPY) Halloween!!

This past week was Halloween. So I know I've mentioned before that teaching is sheer and utter chaos about 85% of the time. Oh my holy hail. Lets just say I never knew things could get so crazy around the school until the day of the Halloween party! Here are some pictures of the madness......

We had a haunted house. These poor poor children. I wish I had a video of how far this little gal jumped, she was clinging onto me for dear life as I lead her through. But that's not the reason this was so chaotic.... lets just say obviously we needed at least 2 people in the haunted house at a time meaning.... we had to leave our classes alone while we led a group of kids through. Needless to say, the kids DEFINITELY had their fare share of fun for the day. Little twits.

My little youngster class... This class may or may not be the death of me. DANG good thing these kids have me wrapped around their finger. Their just so CUTE. Example a: the child raising his hand, words can't even describe the greatness of this child.

This is Penny. She helps me keep my sanity in my crazy class of little ones. She speaks pretty well and I swear she understands whenever I feel like i'm going to explode. She'll give me some ridiculous look or say the cutest little thing. I never knew I'd rely on a 7 year old so much to help me keep my sanity.

Meet Jim. Jim also, surprise surprise, holds a special place in my heart. He is ridiculously smart and ridiculously funny to butte. He didn't dress up on Halloween, I asked him why. He said, " I did" he then walked up to the board and said i'm Teacher Kailey and wrote No HW on the board. (only you have to understand that the reason I love Jim so much is because you know when you make fun of asians and how they talk funny when they speak English? Well Jim talks like this on an EXTREME level. Every time he opens his mouth I just love it and his little hahaha Asian laugh could not get any better)

Aside from Halloween I have some other random things i'd like to share.

#1: As I was sitting here writing this I looked around my room. This is my reality ladies and gentlemen. I wish I could take a panoramic picture so you could see it all. Our gosh dang washer broke and there is extreme wind outside... meaning all my clothes are hung around in my ridiculously small room. I can't wait to come home to a dryer again, although I think all of my shirt collars are so hammered they will not be coming home with me now.

#2: This is also my reality. Remember way back when, when we went to Jhoushan? I've been kicking myself ever since we went for not taking a picture of the statue in the middle of the city of a woman breastfeeding. Well, apparently that trend has spread throughout Taiwan. This is plastered on the bus. Apparently it's a really good marketing tactic to motivate women to breast feed by shoving another woman's boob in their face. Nice.

#3: Ok so I know that this looks like Halloween and I know I already covered that but.... This picture is great for another reason. Well first of all check this guy out. They really don't get the dressing up for Halloween, Super-Man, Gorilla, and laterns? Really? But you wanted to know the GREATEST part of this picture? Do you notice anything different about me and Karyn in this picture? Wait a minute is my hair down? It hasn't been down for nearly 4 months now, and am I wearing a half sleeved cardigan?! WHAT?! Ladies and Gentlemen I'm happy to inform you that the weather has COOLED down. I've been brewing in a pot of jealously at you guys and the cool weather you have back home. Well HA how the tables have turned. It is now in the mid 60's most days. I couldn't be happier. Thanks to David Curtis Larsen, I have been raised to be a warm blooded human. Our house growing up I swear was always right above the freezing level. Until coming to Taiwan, I never realized my SEVERE HATRED for the heat. Seriously i live in Utah, Utah is a desert. Taiwan heat has NOTHING on Utah, NOTHING. Thank you for the change of seasons, I couldn't be more thrilled about the fall weather. 

We also went to Taipei again this weekend with our branch. We went to Chang Kei Shek memorial again. it's so great. I love going to the temple here. It's always an interesting little adventure....

So there ya have it, a brief synopsis of my life.