Last One

So, this blog was just for my Taiwan trip, and since it is now over, I'm going to write about my journey back and then this is over for me.

I went to bed pretty late on Sunday because I was blogging or something. I tried to load pictures from Natalie's camera onto my computer, but my computer not only doesn't read CDs, it has now decided not to read camera memory cards. So I had to get the cord from Natalie in the morning. I didn't have to leave the preschool until 9:10am, and so I woke up before 7am so I would have plenty of time to pack up the last things and then go down and say good-bye to the teachers and whatever kids were down there in the morning. Well, My computer wouldn't let me choose which pictures to upload, it just loaded all 1283 of them. It took until 9:05am, no joke. The worst part, only the last 200 pictures were even of Taiwan. Since I haven't had a chance to look through them yet to delete the ones I want, I have over a 1000 crappy pictures of Natalie's family. Granted, I should be grateful that Natalie lent me her camera, but I was so upset that I didn't have time to say goodbye to the teachers, I feel like such a jerk.

Joseph (Yuling's husband) drove me to the train station and helped me board the train. He put my small suitcase up above the seat on a shelf, then the large suitcase had to sit on the floor in front of me so that for three hours I had to straddle a very large suitcase while also having my backpack on my lap. Not insanely comfortable, but it was alright. I just read my book the whole time so the trip actually went by pretty fast. Once at the Taipei Main Station I walked outside to the bus stop. I bought my ticket and the bus was already pulled up and getting prepped so we could board. The bus ride went by quickly too (because I was reading).

I got to the airport more then 2 1/2 hours before the flight, but China Airlines let me check in anyway. I was so glad to be able to check my bags in. I managed them well, but it was still best to just get them out of my hands (and in a safe spot). I went and found my gate and then grabbed a bite to eat and walked around and did some last souvenir shopping. The smallest bill I had was a 100 (NT$) but that wasn't going to cover lunch in the airport so I put a 1000 NT$ bill in my wallet. But that meant that I had to spend as much of that as I could because there's no point in taking the money back. I bought a few things and then still had money left and couldn't find anything I wanted. Eventually I ended up buying some mango treat that turned out to not be so great. Oh well.

On the plane I had to sit in a middle seat. But, it was the middle seat in an exit isle, so I had all the leg room I needed (and then some) and I didn't have to crawl over anyone to get out. It was pretty much the best spot on the plane. The flight wasn't terrible, but it wasn't the most enjoyable either. Of course, I kept reading. I tried to get a little sleep, but I'm not good at sleeping in public, nor am I good at sleeping sitting up. So, despite all my efforts, I was unable to get much rest. The lights were still turned off on the airplane and so instead of going back to reading I tried to watch a movie. I tuned in at a bad time because all the movies were 45 minutes or more in. I just spent a long time flipping through. Pretty much all their movies were terrible and I finally decided to watch "Leather Heads" and it sucked. Oh well, it killed almost 2 hours, so it wasn't completely pointless.

The flight came in and I had to clear immigration (or whatever it's called when you're a citizen of the country you landed in) and go and get my bags at the baggage claim. Okay, I don't understand why they couldn't just send them straight through, but I guess that every body on every flight had to pick up their bags. My luggage didn't come until one of the last loads off the plane. People would come in around me, they would spot their bag, I would help them get it off, they would walk away, and I would be left waiting. I helped so many people. That's not a bad thing, and I wasn't in a huge hurry (I had a 3 hour layover), it was just slightly humorous/ironic. It was funny. At one point a girl wasn't able to grab her luggage on time and so I tried to reach for it, but it was in an awkward position and I couldn't get it either. The guy standing behind me then tried to pull it off and ended up pulling off the handle on her suitcase. OOOPPPPSSSS!!!!!

I finally got my luggage and was not looking forward to wheeling it around a whole bunch. What actually happen was worse. There was a massive line up to get out of the baggage claim area. I stood in line for a long time. I was so tired of waiting by then, it was ridiculous. But I made it through and was just following the sign that told me "all connecting flights" and then had an arrow pointing. I came to a gate where I walk through to get to another line. In this line, you wait and drop off your luggage and they make sure it gets onto your connecting flight. Oh good, I didn't have to wheel my giant bags all the way through the airport. Well, I get three people away form being able to drop off my bags and the line stops and doesn't move forward. Finally a lady behind me goes up front to see what's wrong. They can't take any more baggage- yet they didn't tell any one in line that? The group of ladies behind me decided they were just going to go to the check in counter and put the bags through themselves. I followed their lead. I went out and found the shuttle bus and took it to the terminal I needed.

I waited in line to get help and after waiting, the guy told me that my bags have already been checked in and that all I had to do was take them to the x-ray machine. Great, I wish I would have known that before waiting 15 minutes for the guy, but whatever. I took my bags over to the x-ray and then went to my gate. Once I was at my gate I was finally able to call home to let people know that I was in America again. I hadn't realized how tired I was until I started talking to people. On the phone I was easily irritable and I noticed how much the trip had warn me out. I had about an hour or so to wait at the gate and then got on the plane that would take me to Salt Lake.

So, my seating for this trip home was fantastic... first, for the 13 hour ride I had the emergency exit with all the leg room, then, for the 2 hour ride I had no one sitting with me and so I had three seats all to myself. I made it off the airplane and called Grandpa right away. He didn't answer. I went down and got my luggage (it came out oober fast) and then called Grandpa once I had my luggage in hand. He didn't answer. I went out to the curb to wait for him at the drive by pick up station and called him to let him know where I was. He didn't answer. I kept calling and kept just getting his voice mail. I called Mom to tell her Grandpa wasn't picking me up and she was all stressed out and told me not to panic. I told her I wasn't panicked at all, I thought it was kind of funny. I ended up sitting there for a while, calling Grandpa every now and again just in case. Mom calls me back and asks where I am. I told her I was waiting at the curb where cars drive by to pick people up. I didn't know why she was asking where I was, I thought maybe she was wondering if I had gone to find an officer or someone to help me? I really didn't know.

I soon found out why she cared so much. I look up and I see Mom walking toward me. I tilt my head sideways and give her a funny look (I'm assuming it looked a lot like the face a dog makes when a dog is confused-any comments about me being a dog and I'll take away your presents!) and I pointed. When she finally got to me I said, "you live in California." A few steps behind her was Grandma and Grandpa Smith. I guess Dad was inside waiting at the carousel trying to find me in side (my family doesn't communicate well, Mom already knew I had my bags). We all met up. Mom kept asking if I was surprised. I told her I was, but that you couldn't see it on my face because I was so tired. It was true, I was exhausted.

We drove home (in two cars) and I went to bed pretty soon after we got back. So that was my journey back. I had good seats and was awaited by a welcoming party. It was a good trip and eased the pain of returning to America (well, it's not the returning I have a problem with, it's the leaving Taiwan part I'm sad about).

It's Really Over

Oh my goodness. I can't handle it. I am really leaving Taiwan in the morning. I've got most everything packed (except what I need to get ready in the morning). I'm really scared about the weight limit, but there's nothing I can do now, it's not like I can just leave stuff behind. If it's over, I've just got to pay for it, and we all know how much I hate spending money, but I've got to do what I've got to do. And I did leave behind what I could, but my bags are still bulging. Yikes, it's going to be something lugging those on the train, on the bus, and in the airport.

Okay, first (I guess this is second by now) I should rewind back to last night. I waited for Evelyn to call me back, but I never heard from her. Since my plans to go sing karaoke fell through, I decided to go get a juice and head out to the beach one last time. I went to Ronald's juice stand and it was so crowded. The girl getting the fruits ready wouldn't help me and I was getting so frustrated. Ronald was so busy at the blenders that he didn't see me. Finally another girl came from the back and asked me (in English) what I wanted. I like the new girl! Oh shoot, back up even more. Before going to get juice I had to go to the fruit stand to pick up a mango for tonight's dinner. I walked in and the nice skinny girl from the juice stand ran up and said "hello." It'd been a while since I'd gotten juice, so I didn't recognize her at first. I said hi back, but I wasn't as excited as she was. After I realized who it was, I felt really bad for not being more happy to see her.

Alright, back to the other story. Ronald was really busy so I didn't have a chance to talk to him and so I just took my juice out to the beach. It was really crowded. It weirded me out, when I pulled up to the parking lot-ish area, there were lots of cars and scooters and bikes. Then I went down to the water and I saw lots of long poles with glow sticks on the end, that means that lots of people were night fishing. I chose a spot a little way away from all the fishers and just sat down. Off in the distance I saw fireworks going off so I turned my attention there. It was a pretty good show, so I wonder if I was watching the fireworks they were setting off at Carp Lake. I sat and watched those for a while, and also watched the waves crash on the shore. After 45 minutes or so a couple came to the exact spot where I was and the guy started fishing while the girl started eating dinner. I felt a little awkward but decided to stick it out anyway. I staid for 15-20 minutes and then decided that the beach just wasn't the same when there were glow sticks everywhere. But, I was able to see my very first firefly. It flew past me, and I had to check to make sure that there was no one around me so that I could be sure that it really was a firefly and not a fishing pole glow stick. But it was, it really was a firefly and it flew past me, and over the water, and then I lost it.

I walked up from the water and walked along the path that takes you to the volleyball courts and saw a water area and a ton of people playing volleyball. It made me kind of sad that I was there all by myself, but I was glad that it looked like everyone else was having fun. Next I got on my bike and biked to the other end of the beach where the night market is. That place was crowded too, so I just biked down the path and turned around and biked back. I wasn't in the mood to walk around the market, so I just left.

I biked back to our night market, but when I passed Ronald's stand, it was still really crowded. I had told him I would be back later tonight, so I decided to go home and come back later. I went home and did my scripture study and took a half hour nap. I figured that by midnight, things should be settling down for him. I was right. I went there and we had time to talk. He thought that I was leaving yesterday and he told me that he was wondering why I hadn't stopped by to say good bye. He asked me why I didn't come around any more and I told him it was because every time I did come he just told me to go away. We talked for a little while and then he said that maybe we could go out to breakfast today (seeing as it was past midnight, it was already Sunday). I told him that I don't buy things on Sunday. He said that was okay, because he would buy it and I would just eat. I told him that didn't work either because I don't go out on Sundays. He thought that I meant that I don't leave my house, but then was confused because I go to church. It was kind of difficult to try to get him to understand. Finally we decided that he would buy food and bring it to me. Okay, I know that that's still not allowed, but there was no deterring him, and it's not like I could make him breakfast because I don't have food in the kitchen and all the stores were already closed. We planned that he would come over at 7:30am and then I left.

I'm such a smuck. I did my laundry yesterday, and so my pants were hanging up to dry and I had to wear a skirt. I've gone four months without ruining a skirt as I ride my bike, but no my way back from the night market, my skirt somehow got caught in the brakes of my bike. When I got home, it was dark downstairs and I was tired and wanted to go to bed. So, instead of taking my time and getting my skirt out carefully, I had to be a little more aggressive. So now there is a hole in my brown skirt. There was also bike oil on it, but I washed it right away because bike oil is a terrible stainer. I'm pretty sure that I can just sew up the hole and since it's in the back at the bottom, it'll be fine. But I still felt so stupid for getting it caught and tearing it.

Okay, finally back to today. I got up early to take a shower and tidy up a little before Ronald came over. By tidy up, I mainly mean that I had to take my clothes down from the bamboo rod where they were drying. Well the punk didn't show up until 8:00am, and he hadn't brought breakfast. I wish that I would have had food in the kitchen so that I could have just made something and so he wouldn't have gone out and bought stuff, but I only had enough oatmeal for one person, because that's how I'd planned it. He wanted me to go out and get breakfast with him, but I told him no. I was just going to tell him to forget it, but then he left to go pick the food up. He took his time getting back. I wanted to leave the apartment at 8:45am, but he didn't get back until 8:30am. He brought up the food and also a funny little stuffed cupid that he had got from one of the claw machines. What a goon. There is no way that the toy will fit in my luggage, so I just took a picture of it and I'm going to have to leave it here. I guess that it was a nice thought, but what a weirdo! (I mean that in the nicest way, too.) We ate breakfast and talked and then I had to kick him out so that I could go to church.

I went to church and had a good time. I was in such a hurry to get to church and pedaled so hard because I thought I was going to be late, but when I got to Relief Society, I was the third one there: the teacher, the president, and me. Right after I got in, June came in. She told me that she had a great time in China and I told her that I had a great time in Hong Kong. That's pretty much all we got out before Yuling came in. I guess that she was released from her calling in Young Woman's so now she can come to Relief Society. She was shocked to see June and they chatted for a minute or two before the lesson started. After class ended I had Sister Wood go and give the Relief Society president the Afterglow CD. I wanted to give it to the Relief Society so they could use it for music appreciation or play it at activities or something. But since I couldn't tell them that, I had Sister Wood go give it to them. I really like giving presents, but I don't like being the one to hand it over, so I didn't go up with Sister Wood. But, Ariel's mom (the Relief Society President) came over and had me sign the front.

We had a tiny Sunday School class again. It was the teacher, the Branch President, the four missionaries, me, and two investigators. It was pretty sad. It was a really good lesson though. It was on honesty and the only reason I didn't like it was because now I'm accountable for more things after learning more today.

Sister Wood got no break today. She translated for me in Relief Society, Sunday School, and Sacrament meeting. She told me that one on one translations can be pretty awkward. "Normally they wouldn't be, but when you're a missionary, it's amazing how awkward things can get." I had to laugh at that, but I think that last time I sat beside Elder Pendelton when he was translating, I was the one that felt more awkward.

After church I stuck around so I could take some pictures with the Sister Missionaries. We snapped off a few shots and then they had to run to a meeting. I went home and was very surprised to find that Natalie and Beth had already returned. I thought that they were going to stay and go to the English Ward in Taipei, but I guess their plans changed. Natalie took off for the Hualien Branch shortly after I got back, but Beth was asleep. Okay, I have to be careful now because I know that Beth reads this, and I hope she's not offended by me saying so, but that girl can sleep. Natalie opened up Beth's window, stuck her face in, and honestly yelled Beth's name a minimum of 10 times and Beth didn't move a muscle. I told Natalie that she should give up and just head out to church, but she was determined. She started looking around for something to "throw lightly" at Beth and she kept yelling her name. It was kind of funny/ annoying. But writing about it now, I am definitely chuckling. And it turns out that Beth was not choosing to ignore Natalie, she honestly did not hear her calling.

Any who, after eating lunch I took a nap. I of course set my alarm, and I gave myself an hour to sleep. Yeah right, as soon as the alarm went off I turned it off and slept for another hour and a half (maybe two hours). It felt great at the time, but now (like always) I'm a little bit regretting it because I'm not super sleepy even though it's late.

After my nap, it was time to make dinner. I was really excited for this. I'd never made it before, but I thought about it the other day and thought that it would be really good to make chicken with mango salsa. Oh yeah, so right after church I took the skin off the chicken breasts and "marinated" them in fresh pineapple juice. After my nap I cut up tomatoes, green peppers, onions, garlic, and mixed that up with a little bit of salt and squeezed a little lemon on it. I set that in the fridge while I cut up the mango. When the mango was all cut up I added that to the salsa and put it back in the fridge. I of course tried some, and let me tell you, I made some REALLY good salsa. Next step was to cook the chicken and the asparagus. I put some oil in a pan and put in the asparagus. Then I added some salt and some pepper salt and cooked that. At the same time I put the chicken and pineapple juice in a frying pan and had that cooking over a low heat. When the chicken was just about done I drained the juice out and put some salsa on top of the chicken so that it could cook the flavor into the chicken. I forgot that I had gotten salad for dinner too, so while the chicken and salsa were cooking I rinsed the salad. It turns out that I didn't grab romaine lettuce like I thought I had, I actually grabbed some type of lettuce that reminds me of green onion. So the salad was a little funky, but everyone ate it and Beth went back for seconds, so I guess it wasn't that terrible. When it was all finished I put the fresh pineapple in a bowl, set out the salad, put the asparagus in a bowl and dished up the chicken onto every one's plate and put extra salsa on top. It looked so good and I was so proud of myself. Unfortunately, Amy and Natalie were way late. I had waited until 4pm to start cooking, and I took my time because I knew that Amy had a meeting after church and wouldn't get out until around 5pm. I had perfect timing because dinner was done just after 5pm. But, Amy and Natalie did not come home until 5:40pm. I'm sure that dinner would have tasted better if all the food had been hot, but I still think it turned out really well. I'm terrible at hiding how pleased I am when something I cooked turned out well. So I'm pretty sure that everyone was wondering why I kept on mentioning how pleased I was. But really, I totally made up the recipe and it turned out so well, I was pleased! I took pictures of the dinner, but my camera cord is already packed, so I can't put them up.

When Amy and Natalie came back, Amy gave me a birthday present. She had made me a picture frame and had printed me out some pictures. She was so worried that I wouldn't like it because it was hand made, but I absolutely loved it. It's really cute, and it's way precious that she would make it for me. She also made one for Adam (the teacher that was here a year ago and who I met because he came back to visit Taiwan for a little while) and so I'm taking that back to America to give to him for her. After dinner Amy and Natalie worked on their friendship bracelets while Beth wrote letters and I sat there and socialized with everyone (well, I tried, but I was kind of captivated by the bracelets).

Once Amy left I called June up to see if she wanted to come over and play cards or something because we didn't talk too much today. She said that she was eating dinner and probably wouldn't make it over. I made Beth play cards with me anyway because I was in the mood for some games, and definitely not in the mood to finish packing. While we were playing we heard someone come up the stairs. The sister missionaries had made me a birthday card but had forgotten to give it to me at church so they stopped by to drop it off.

While the missionaries were here, June called and said that she and her cousin were going to come over and play games. June and Dave came over and Beth and I played cards with them. I learned three new games tonight. I learned a new way of playing BS, where someone puts down cards (an eight for example) and everyone else has to lay down that same number (or lie if they don't have any). The same number needs to be laid down until someone finally calls BS. So you can have pretty big pile that are all supposedly eights. I also learned how to play Card Attack where you flip over cards and as you do you count: ace, two, three, ... if the card you turn is the card that you said, you slap the pile. The last person to slap the pile has to take it. The point of the game is to get rid of your cards fastest. That one is trippy, it messed with my head so much. It was weird to be saying "king" but then see a four played or whatever. The last game, Dave and June taught us. You deal out all the cards. Everyone looks at their hand. The 7 of clubs starts the game. You build up and down in order off of the seven. If you have another seven, you can play that also, but if you do not have a card to play, you have to lay one down. No one knows what card you lay down, so it might be a card that you need to be played, but because they laid it down, you can't play your card. I guess we played the game too nice, without laying too many traps for people, but I still thought it was a fun game.

I don't know how long we were playing cards, but it wasn't too terribly long because Beth needed to do her evaluations of the kids and I had to finish packing. Like I said, I've managed to get it packed into my suitcases, but they are bulging and possibly too heavy.

I can't believe that I'm really leaving tomorrow. It doesn't seem real. And although I have my bags packed and I have a train ticket and I know I have to get on a plane tomorrow, it still hasn't really clicked. This is weird.

Alright. This is the last post I'll be posting from Taiwan. I'll probably post one more to recap how my journey back went, but if might take me a few days to write it up.

Zaijian Taiwan.

Ping Pong!

I just noticed how funny it is that I've lived in Asia for 4 months and today, two days before I leave, is the first time I've played ping pong. But I'll get to that in a little bit.

This morning I woke up and did my workout before going over to Tzu Chi. Actually, as always, I gave myself way more time to get there then I needed, but it was good because it meant that I could go and pick up some supplied for dinner tomorrow. I rode over the Tzu Chi at 10am and was there until 2pm. It was okay though, I had a good time. For the first two hours I met with the delegates. I was supposed to ask them questions about Taiwan's history and geography. I wasn't told to come with questions, so it was a little hard. As I paused to think of questions, the delegates started asking me questions about America, about BYU, and me. So we did kind of a half and half- I asked a few questions about Taiwan, and then we would veer off course and talk about America. In my mind, it's all good because whether they were asking or answering questions, they were practicing their English. After the two hour question and answer section we had lunch. After lunch I went into Director Tsai's office and she had some questions for me too. While I was talking to Director Tsai, Venerable Ying came in and gave me a thank you present. She gave me a nice water bottle/canteen with the Tzu Chi logo on it, a Chinese fan, and a jade charm thingy. It was so sweet. Director Tsai ran out of questions but told me that she would e-mail me if she had any more (she e-mailed me no more then half an hour later, but I haven't had time to get back to her).

I got home around 2:30pm and hung up my clothes to dry and started packing some of my clothes and things that I won't need in the next three days. At 5:00pm the Chous came to pick me up for dinner. They gave me a thank you card and Angelo had made one himself that's actually pretty cool. He folded a paper in such a way that when you put it on a flat surface, it will slowly rise, and then it will pop up. On the part that is face down at first, but then in your face when it pops, he wrote a little message. We went to the China Trust Hotel for dinner. It was a nice buffet and I am way full. I ate a lot, so I won't ramble it all off, but I'll pipe in with some of the more exotic things I tried. I had mutton, octopus, "shells", sushi with cooked egg on the outside instead of seaweed, pig heart, some type of muscle served in a shell with sauce and melted cheese on top, and I learned that Asians don't know how to prepare steak appropriately. For dessert I picked up something that looked like fudge. Hmmmm... if I just would have stopped and thought about where I was, I would have known not to think it was fudge. It turned out to be a red bean dessert. But, guess what, I've lived here long enough to appreciate a red bean dessert. It wasn't my favorite, but I ate it.

This is where the title of the blog comes into play. After dinner we went up to the third floor of the hotel where they have a game center type thing. We played ping pong. I learned how to hold the paddle the proper way (which wasn't as awkward as it looks) and I didn't do too shabby. Granted, we didn't keep score, and I only played the kids, but I had fun and I kept it on the table, and made some good saves.

When I was at Tzu Chi, one of the times that we veered off topic, we started talking about karaoke and I thought it would be fun if we all went out tonight and sang karaoke. Most of them were pretty excited about it. But they had classes today and Patrick said that sometimes their classes go until 7 or 8pm. I told them that I didn't mind staying out and that I had dinner plans at 5pm and didn't know how long they would go anyway. Right after the conversation though, we went to lunch and I sat with the teachers and not the delegates and then I went to talk to Director Tsai, so we didn't have a chance to solidify plans. But Evelyn, who was the most excited about going, ran up to me and gave me her phone number before I left. When I got back from dinner and saw that it was only 7:30pm I put more money on my skype account and gave her a call. She didn't answer the phone, so I left a message and told her to call the school phone. I'm sitting anxiously waiting for 8pm to see if they are out of class and to see if we actually will go karaokeing tonight. I really hope I do. I mean, ping pong and karaoke, that would be the perfect Asian send off!

Home Alone

Natalie and Beth took off for Taipei today after school. I thought they were just staying tonight and they'd be back Saturday night, but it turns out that they are staying Saturday night too so they might not even be back in time for dinner tomorrow. Okay, fine with me. So when I got back from tutoring the house was dark and I'm kind of liking the quiet right now.

This morning I slept in because Natalie and I were going to try all of those new fruits and I figured that unless I got up really early, I wasn't going to be done with my workout in time to eat with Natalie. So I waited, but Natalie woke up late and we did have time to try all the fruits, but I was in the kitchen cutting things up while she was getting ready. No big deal, just not what I thought was going to happen. It turns out that the thing that looked like a mini cantaloupe was in fact a tiny cantaloupe. I am not the hugest fan of the star fruit, but it looked pretty neat when you cut it and it really is a star (sorry, I forgot to take pictures of all the fruit). The little melon was like a honey dew and it was good, and there wasn't really a rhine, it was just a skin. The citrus that I bought that Amy told me was tradition for the up and coming Moon Festival wasn't quite ripe I think. It tasted like a citrus, but didn't have a whole lot of flavor, and it kind of made my mouth go a little numb. And that was our breakfast.

Because I waited for Natalie to get up, I went for my run a lot later then normal. There is such a big difference between running at 6am and running at 7am, so imagine how killer it was to be running at 9am. It was a hot hot morning, and of course there was no shade where I was. But, all in all, it was a god hard workout that made me feel good (although insanely tired) afterward.

I came back home and showered up and went to the bookstore. It was mostly full of English learning books, but there was a small wall with legitimate books. I spent some time in there looking at all the titles. I'm such a moron. I bought a book that is fairly large and expensive, when Persuasion by Jane Austen was pretty small and only cost 80 NT$. I really want to start a collection of the Jane Austen books, but I also really wanted to read Wicked, so I chose Wicked. On the way back I decided to go out of my way to visit a tea shop where I've seen some really nice tea pots for sale. I've only ever seen them in the window, so I wanted to go in and look around. It turns out that the store was not open yet. I headed back, but stopped off at a random store that I knew had lots of random things in it. I spent some time looking around in there and ended up buying a couple of things. As I walked out of that store I was just thinking that me having down time was bad today because apparently I was in a money spending mood.

I got back during the kid's lunch time and spent my time trying to use Beth's computer to copy a cd onto my computer. Sounds confusing, right? Well, the cd player on my computer doesn't work. So I wanted to put a cd onto Beth's computer and then use my usb to transfer the music to my computer. It worked, it just took me a while. Oh, and before that I was writing Teacher Steffanie a thank you note for everything she's helped me with (she dropped off my jade necklace today) and wrote in the "Bye-Bye Book" that the preschool has all the teachers sign. I did some more organizing, because I don't want to actually start packing yet because I know that I would end up having to unpack and repack on Sunday anyway.

After school I had Eliza deliver the thank you card and present to her mom (Teacher Steffanie) because I am an awkward person and didn't want to hand it to Steffanie directly. And I talked to Beth and Natalie while they got packed and ready to leave for Taipei. I kept organizing and fiddling on the computer until it was time to go to tutoring. I walked up the stairs and Angelo was really confused that I was there. He told me that their mom had told them I wouldn't come today. Cami ran and told her mom that I was there and then got Angelo's book and sat him down. I guess they also didn't realize that I am leaving on Monday and that tonight was my last time with them. When the mom (Betty) found out that I was leaving, she apologized for not having a gift prepared for me to thank me for teaching her children. I told her that it wasn't a problem, but she suggested that we go out to dinner tomorrow night. Okay, sounds good to me. So I tutored the kids, and gave them some of the wooden cut outs Grandma sent me. They really liked them. Betty made me fresh pineapple juice while I was tutoring and then for dinner she had dumplings and soup for me. I asked if she had made the dumplings and she told me that she had. I could tell, they tasted so much better then the freezer ones. Not only did she make them herself, but she also used vegetables that came from her own garden. I always love having dinner at their house because she is a good cook and she always lets me know what came from her garden. There was no wii tonight, but it was okay, tutoring had already gone a little over and we were talking during dinner, so I was there late enough, no need to keep the kids up too much longer.

So now I'm back home, and it's nice and quiet. I've got to stay up because I'm washing my table cloth before I pack it away, but I don't think this will be a very long night.

Happy Birthday to Me!!!

Okay, today was pretty much one of the best days in Hualien. I woke up around 7am, so not too early, and not too late. I hadn't been to my normal running trail in a long time because I've switched to doing workouts and not just runs. So today I decided to head back to my trail for old time sake. It was a cooler morning then it has been, so the run was absolutely perfect. On the way back I stopped by our old breakfast stop and picked up a taro steamed roll. It's also been a while since I've had one of those. So my breakfast today was a taro roll and the custard apple I had bought a couple days ago (because it was finally ripe).

After breakfast I showered and went to the pose office to send off the package of souvenirs. It's funny that I tried so hard to haggle and shop around for all of the souvenirs I bought, but then I went and spent $40 U.S. to ship it home. Goodness gracious, it was not fun to drop NT$1,288 on a package. But I'm glad that it's off and on it's way home, and I'm glad that I don't have to pay for an extra bag on the plane AND lug the extra bag around. At least this way when I pay extra, I don't have to worry about still bringing it.

I went to Tzu Chi at lunch today. It wasn't what I thought it was going to be. They were way late picking us up, but it didn't really bother me because Natalie and I were just chatting it up while we waited. When they picked us up they took us to a room where we ate lunch, but Director Tsai came in and told us to eat lunch alone and she would be back after her meeting was over. We had Pizza Hut pizza for lunch, as well as the typical bowl of rice and vegetables that they usually supply. When Director Tsai came back, we talked about things that the delegates can do Saturday morning when they are in Provo. The delegates weren't even there today. It was just Natalie and I telling Director Tsai, Venerable Ying, and some other guy I've never seen before, all about Provo. Although it's not what I expected, I had a great time. They were really grateful for our suggestions and you can tell they are beyond excited to come. I'm excited for the to come too, and I'm especially excited because I'll get to go out and tour a little bit with them (they also want me to play tour guide, we'll see how that goes).

When we were done at Tzu Chi (actually, we could have kept talking, but Natalie had to get back to prepare for class), I met up with Amy so that she could take me to pick up my glasses. I was just thinking this morning how I really wanted my glasses to be done today so that I could have them for sure and not worry whether they will be late and I wouldn't be able to get them in time. Low and behold, after having that thought, I got an e-mail from Amy saying we could pick them up whenever. I tried them on at the store and I've been wearing them since. I really like them. It's not as weird as I remember to wear glasses. I remember that it bothered me because you don't have peripheral vision, but I guess I haven't had to use it too much today or something, because it's not bothering me.

I had to be back to the school by 4:10 pm because last night Natalie asked if I could come down to class at that time. Because she only asked me to come at the end of one of the classes, I was a little bit suspicious and thought that they might have been planning something, but I didn't want to get my hopes up in case that they weren't doing something. But then Natalie reminded me today to come down and to bring my camera. I asked if we would be in her classroom and she said we would be in the combined classroom. Again, I was pretty sure they were doing something, but I tried to down play it. I mean, it's only Thursday and so the kids' last chance to see me isn't until tomorrow. But, when Amy was dropping me off, she said "Happy Birthday Brooke." I told her that my birthday wasn't until Tuesday and that she knew that. She then said that they were throwing me a party today and so she felt like she should tell me today. Okay, my suspicions were confirmed right then and there :o)

So at 4:10 I went down to Yellow Class and Natalie's class hadn't merged over quite yet. I walked in and all the kids started saying my name, and I tried to direct their attention to Beth instead, but it was lucky that Beth had JUST ended. Natalie's class came over and Areti runs up and hands me a large birthday card. Inside the large card, there was a small birthday card from everyone of the kids. It was adorable. The kids sung to me, and then they brought in a cake. I sat at the little table like the preschoolers do when it is their birthday, and I took pictures with all the teachers like the preschoolers so, and I took pictures with all the kids like the preschoolers do. I didn't have candles nor did I wear the birthday hat, but I felt pretty darn special. Then the kids sang all 3 of the birthday songs to me: the regular Happy Birthday, then Happy Birthday in Chinese, and then the primary song "You've Had a Birthday" So I got sang to like the preschoolers do. And it was no crappy cake either. The kids got little brownies from the cheese cake place that Nancy and I love and then the teachers got a type of cheese cake, I guess. It had a honey cake layer at the bottom and then a cream that was soft, but still cheese cake-ish, and then white chocolate shavings. It was a GOOOOOOOD cake. It was so insanely sweet of everyone to plan out for me. Natalie says that she remembers me talking about how sad I was that I am leaving the day before my birthday and so she wanted to make sure that I could have at least a small celebration before I leave. It was awesome and I've been telling her thank you all night. I hope it's enough.

Tomorrow night Beth and Natalie are going to Taipei with Grace Chu (long story behind who that is- I don't know her, but she's kind of a family friend to Natalie's family). There is a Branch Temple trip on Saturday so they are going up, spending the night, and then exploring Taipei Saturday. They invited me along, but I've done enough trips and spent enough money on Taipei that I declined. But, Natalie thought it would be fun if Beth, Natalie, and I all went out to dinner before I left. I pointed out at lunch today that tonight would be the only time that we could go because they will be gone tomorrow and will get back too late on Saturday. Beth was really tired and had some stuff to catch up on and so it ended up just being Natalie, Amy, and I. We had a great time, but we all wished that Beth could have made it too. We went to a spaghetti place for dinner and they gave us a lot of food. They accidentally brought out bread to our table instead of the table next to us. Natalie and I are used to Italian places having bread, so we didn't think twice and we snatched a piece before the waitress could correct the mistake, so we got some free bread. Then we had our pasta and a bowl of corn chowder that tasted really sweet, almost like the cream was melted ice cream. (That probably sounds really gross, but it was really good- it wasn't melted ice cream with corn and ham in it, the soup just was sweeter then I'm used to.) Then, they brought out a small bowl of pudding. I gave most of my pudding to Amy (as did Natalie) it's not that it wasn't good (it was REALLY good) I was just so stuffed and wasn't planning on their being dessert.

We tried to go look at an English book store that Yuling mentioned the other day, but it has closed already, so Amy headed off, and we headed back home. We passed the fruit stand on the way back so Natalie and I stopped off. We picked up a lot of fruit that was new to us and tomorrow for breakfast we are going to sample all the new fruits.

Oh yeah, I got my table cloth back from Ariel's mom today. It was still all wrapped up, so after getting back, I sat down and pulled all the strings out. It turned out! I'm so excited! You can definitely tell where Steffanie tied the strings and where I tied the strings, but it still turned out. I have to wash it tomorrow, so I hope that the color stays, but as of now, I really like it.

So I got my glasses today, I got my table cloth, Steffanie talked to a member of the ward who got me a really good deal on a piece of jade that I saw and wanted when we went to the stone market on Tuesday, so I paid Steffanie the money and will get the jade tomorrow, I got a cake, and Natalie paid for half of my dinner. It really was a great day today. I am so happy right now :o)

P.S. Grandma and Grandpa Smith, I know that I look really different in my glasses, but I think that on Monday I will be wearing these, so get a good look at these pictures so you'll be able to recognize me in the airport :o)

P.P.S. Family living at 650 Danica Place. The package that will be coming in a week is full of things for you, but please note that it is addressed to me. This means that under law, it is illegal to open that package. I want to be there when you see your presents for the first time, and I might have to do some explaining. So, I know how some of you (Kim) can be impatient and love (Kim) to open other people's mail, but you MUST NOT open it. You got me? I'll be home soon enough to open it up, just stick it in my room so that it doesn't tempt you. LOVE YOU!

Mexican Food in Taiwan

I had a really good day today. I wasn't highly productive, so it's a little frustrating, but it was a fun day. Uploading the pictures took forever last night and so I didn't get to bed until after 1:30am. So when my alarm went off at 6:30am, I was pretty tired. I reset it for 7am, but that was too early still so I turned it off. I woke up at 8:30am, so my day started later then normal. I still got up and worked out, but because it was later in the morning, the sun was out in all it's intensity and it was pretty hot out there.

I had plans to meet with the sister missionaries at noon and I was hoping that I could run a few errands before going, but I got doing something in my room that held me up until it was time to leave. I rode over to the church. The gate across the driveway was shut. That was weird, I don't often see the church shut. There was a walk in gate to the side and I tried that and it was locked too. I decided to just park my bike and sit out front and wait for the sisters to show up. I waited like 20 minutes before I heard a voice from behind me ask, "Brooke, how long have you been waiting there?" The sisters had been inside and it turns out that the gate that I tested was really unlocked- I had pressed the wrong side of the gate or something. The sisters felt bad that I had been waiting out there so long, and I just felt like the biggest moron for being locked out by an open gate.

The sisters went to grab their bikes and we all headed out to a Mexican restaurant. I was excited and knew it would be a fun experience to have Taiwanese style Mexican food. It definitely did not taste authentic, but it was pretty good food. They had tortilla chips and tortillas, so that was super exciting. After lunch we headed back to the church. Along the way, Sister Woods stopped off to buy a green bean smoothie. I tried some of hers and liked it and decided to get one of my own. Once we got to the church we saw the elders who were heading back to their apartment. They were making fun of Sister Woods and her smoothie but then I pointed out that I had one too. They were in shock that I would like it the first time I tried it. I think it's one of those foods that you get used to the more times you have it, so for me to like it the first time just shows that I've adjusted to Taiwanese food :o)

At the church Sister Woods taught us how to swing dance a little bit. I don't think Sister Hill was having the most fun with it because she ended up sitting down and fiddling with her camera and trying to figure out what cool effects her camera could do. Sister Woods and I had a blast however. We stayed there for a while, but then they had an 'appointment' with an investigator. I decided to leave when she came because no one was really sure why she was there, but I figured the girl didn't want me there and I felt awkward (what's new, right?)

I came back and found out that Kristy was not at school today, which means that I didn't have to tutor her, and Dar-sen went on vacation, so I didn't tutor him either. After figuring out that I didn't have to tutor Kristy, Beth and I left to go catch a movie. On Sunday Beth told me that she wanted to go see Made of Honour. We had plans to go on Monday, but then we went to Carp Lake. We were going to go on Tuesday, but we went to the stone market. So we went tonight. We went and bought the tickets and then went to dinner. I thought we were pressed for time, but Beth read her clock wrong and we actually had an hour more then we thought. We wandered for a little while and then just ended up going to the floor our movie was on a half hour early. The movie was pretty good. I was expecting better, but I enjoyed it.

After the movie we headed back, and now I'm blogging. So, it was a fun filled day, but like I said, I'm feeling a little guilty because nothing got accomplished. Perhaps I will make up for it tomorrow, we'll see.

I'm a Week Away from Another Big Event Too

I have been focusing so hard on the fact that I have to leave Taiwan on Monday that I keep on forgetting that I turn 21 on Tuesday. Crazy. I'm not old enough to be 21, what is that?

I had a pretty busy day today, so that is very good. I woke up and did my workout. When I came home I ate breakfast, showered, and then ran off to do some errands. I went to the store to buy some treats to send home, I went to the fruit stand to pick up some fruit. I bought a large yellow (local) mango and one of the custard apples that I had in Thailand and really liked (Wednesday as I was wandering around the airport, I discovered that it has another name, "Buddha Fruit"). I came back and dropped off my wears and then headed to the post office to get a box so that I can ship some of my souvenirs home.

It was difficult to get the box back on my bike because it was just a large flat piece of card board that didn't fit in my basket or on the back luggage rack. I had to put it on top of the basket and hold it down with one hand. Only once did it get away from me. It didn't fly away, it just smacked me in the face. How embarrassing, it happened right as a car pulled around the corner, so it totally saw me get nailed by my own box :o( I loaded up all the stuff I wanted to send home, and cushioned it as best as I could because there are a few breakable things in there. I glued it shut and I need to address it, tape it, and send it. Well.... that WAS all that I had to do. I bought some more souvenirs tonight so I have to open the box and reorganize to fit the new things in. Thinking about it right now, this is NOT going to be the cheapest thing to ship, it's got some heavy things in it. Perhaps I won't put in the things I bought today, one of them is a stone something something, so that would not help the weight/price situation.

But after I packed up the box, it was time to meet up with Amy. Today Amy and I spent our time shopping. First we went out to lunch. We were going to go to a pasta place, but that was closed. Then we were going to go to a really good curry place, but that was closed. So we had some famous fried rice. I had sweet and sour and spicy chicken fried rice and it was pretty enjoyable. After lunch Amy needed to go to a store to pick up some things so we walked around Poya (the name of the store) for a while. After that it was time to go and get me some glasses. We went to one store and tried on a lot of glasses. We left and went to another store, and another, and another. Shoot, there was probably one more, but I can't remember for certain. I found a lot of ones that were pretty cute, but Amy really liked a pair from the first store we were at and so we went back. We picked out the frames again and then I had my eye exam. It was similar to an eye exam in America, and the lady even spoke English. The difference was that instead of having a machine with all the different lenses in it, they are old school and have the giant glasses with changeable lenses that they use to test which lens is best for your eye. When they found the right lenses, they had me walk around the front of the store to make sure that they felt good on my eye and didn't give me a headache. When I walked out of the back room, Amy laughed at me because of the silly glasses I was wearing. The glasses prescription and the contacts prescription are different and the lady helping me wanted to order contacts for me in the new prescription. Back home, the doctor told me that a glasses prescription would be stronger because the contacts are right again your eye, while their is space between your eyes and the glasses. I didn't want to switch my contact prescription. When I buy contacts I usually buy two boxes for each eye (my eyes have way different prescriptions) but this time I only bought one. Two boxes of contacts cost $1000 NT, which is around $33 U.S. Because the brand I have isn't the most expensive brand, I think that the prices are very similar and so it doesn't save me a whole lot to buy them here. And I don't actually know how much cheaper the glasses were either. I chose the cheapest lenses because I will stick with wearing contacts most of the time and just wear my glasses on occasion to give my eyes a breather (and there was a BIG difference in price for the next best lens). And even with the cheapest lens, and with the frames being 50% off, I am still spending $2280NT which is $70-something U.S.- okay, I guess they are cheaper here, I had done the math wrong in my head while we were shopping.

I could have had my glasses ready for me today, but they did not have my contacts in stock and so they had to order them. I will just pick up my glasses at the same time I pick up my contacts. They said it would take 2-3 days. It better not take any longer then that, because I will be gone if they take too long.

Funny story about classes shopping really quick. At one place, I was trying on glasses and the sales lady comes up and starts saying something. Amy laughs and turns to me. "She says that she really likes your eye lip." I asked if she meant eye lid and pointed to my eye lid. Amy said yeah, she meant eye lid. It was one of the weirder compliments I've gotten, but it didn't seem too strange because many Asian's don't have eye lids. Then Amy said that the girl wanted to know if they were real. Again, not a typical question, but in China, women have eye lid surgery all the time. Amy saw that I was confused my that question so she added, "yeah, because some girls buy fake eye lids to put over their real ones." Ahha! She did not mean eye lid. She meant eye lashes. The girl was complimenting my eye lashes and wanted to know if they were real. Okay, that compliment is a more normal one to get. And yes, they are real.

After getting my glasses we walked around some stores downtown looking for something for me to send home (notice I'm not saying what it is, I like presents to be a surprise), and Amy was looking for a new skirt. I had tutoring at 5pm, so I had to get back before Amy found a skirt, but on our way back to her scooter we stopped into a department store to see if I could get the batteries changed in the two watches I have that both died on me. The sports watch I had was rusted on the inside and so they could not fix that. And the cute one that I bought in Thailand is also unfixable. The lady said that when a watch dies, you need to get it fixed immediately or else it can not work again. I never knew that. But sad story... I wasn't too bumed about not getting my sports watch back, but my Thailand one was really cute and was a great piece of jewelry on top of being a useful time telling machine.

My tutoring class went well today. I only have the two kids, but they were well behaved and we had fun with class today. At the end, I let them take a Mardi Gras necklace and one of the wooden crafts that Grandma sent me in her package. They liked them, and it was good to end class on a positive note.

After tutoring I took Beth down town to try the famous dumplings. We were in a hurry because Teacher Steffanie was taking us to the stone market at 7pm, and we didn't leave the house until like 6:20pm. It's hit and miss with the dumpling place. If you get there right after a large batch has been made, then you are in and out of there in no time at all. But if they are out and need to make a new batch, you can be waiting for a while. Unfortunately we made it on the second option. We had to wait a while, and so since Beth bikes slower then I do, I sent her home a different way on her own. I sent her the other way because it was a straight shot and so she wouldn't get scared or lost along the way. I finally got the dumplings and headed down the road. I hit almost every red light, and I was restricted by how fast I could go because my bike is broken. I didn't actually overtake Beth, but I had a spot that I told her to stop at in case I didn't make it in time. She had stopped where I asked, but at first I didn't see her and I was really worried that I had lost the new teacher. I had a brief moment of panic, but then I saw her standing on the side. Oh good, we did not have to send out a search party, she is one that listens and can follow directions. Go Beth.

We did not make it back by 7:00pm, but Steffanie was late anyway, so it worked out. She did have to wait for us to grab our stuff, but she didn't seem to mind. We went to the stone market and watched aborigines perform some of their native dances. It was a really good show. At one point in time, they called for volunteers to come up and dance- yep, I most definitely volunteered. Teacher Steffanie came up with Natalie and I so that she could translate what they were telling us to do. It was fun, and I'm glad that they taught us a simple dance :o) After the show we walked around the market and looked at the stones (jade, marble, quartz, geodes, etc.) that they had, different carvings, and everything else that they had. We spent quite some time looking around that place. And we bought a good deal of things there.

Once we finally left the stone market, we went to a night market near the beach. As we drove there and when we first started walking around, I had NO idea where we were. But, as we walked around a little more, I realized that I had explored this part of the beach in the day time, but there were no booths and I had no idea that that was there. Then, I remembered that I'd even been to that part of the beach at night and I'd heard the music and stuff, but I had chosen not to go down that far and see what was going on. I thought that a group of friends had gotten together and were having a party and I didn't want to go and watch their party. It turns out, it wasn't one party, it was a crowd of people at the night market. That's pretty much funny to me. This night market was cool because it had lots of carnival games. I asked Teacher Steffanie if it was only a summer thing and she said no, it's all the time. That means that people in Hualien can go to the carnival whenever they want to. That's pretty awesome, we mostly get them in the summers. Steffanie pointed out a snack thing that we all tried. It was a thin wrap that they put shaved sugar peanut candy and ice cream in and then wrapped it up. It was worth trying once, but it's definitely not a favorite of mine. After walking around the market for a little while we went to the beach.

The moon was reflecting on the water and the waves were coming in and going out and so the water was sparkling really bright in one area. It reminded me of the Little Mermaid where King Triton turns Ariel into a human. He touches the water with his triton and the water starts to sparkle, then the rock sparkles, then Ariel sparkles... Oh yeah, the part of the water that was sparkling led up to a big rock in the water, so that added to why that image popped into my head. It was so pretty. We walked on the rocks down to the water, stood for a minute or two, and then went back up. Steffanie bought some sparklers and we played with those for a little while. Some kids that were running along the sidewalk came over when they saw us with the sparklers. I think they were laughing at us for taking pictures and so I started taking pictures of them. They pretended not to want to be in the pictures, but they of course came running back every time I had my camera out. It was a fun little game we had going on.

After the fireworks it was time to head back. Everyone else is pretty much pooped out, but I've still got energy. It's a good thing I have energy too, because I had to stay up and write this post. Next thing I need to do is load the pictures for this post and for yesterday's, and then I think that the bed is starting to call my name.

The Packing Has Begun

This morning I chose to sleep in and let my body recooperate some more. The back of my knee was still bothering me, so I'd rather that it healed all the way then have me run on it and hurt it more. My knee feels better now though so I'll get up tomorrow morning and go running. It's been too long, I have to make sure that I don't get out of the habit or it'll be too hard to go back.

The most exciting part of my day was my call home. It was the last time I'll call home before I head back to America. *Side note: when I was at Disneyland these girls asked me to take a picture of them and they asked if I was from the States or Canada. It threw me off to be asked it that way and I told them I was from America (that's what I'm used to answering here). They understood what I meant, but I realized afterward how retarded I sounded. Canada and the United States are both on the Continent of North America so Canadians are technically Americans too.* I decided to use up all of my remaining skype minutes, so I got to talk to my family for like an hour and a half. It was good. I got Roman to talk to me, but I guess Issac was being a little pillious and wouldn't talk. After talking to them I'm a little more excited to go home, but I know this week is going to be really hard.

I staid inside most of today (which could have helped my excitement to go home, that happens when I don't have a busy day). I did a tiny bit of packing and a lot of bit of cleaning. I cleaned my room and the bathroom. But this was no ordinary cleaning of the bathroom. I did the normal counter, sink, toilet cleaning, but then I swept the floor, then I sprayed cleaner on the floor and took a plastic mop/broom thing and scrubbed the floor. Then I took the shower head and squirted the floor down and repeated with the cleaner and mop thing at least three times. There is no fan in the bathroom and the vent is so tiny that it's always the hottest in the bathroom. So by the time I finished cleaning, it looked like I had just come out of the shower, I was that wet with sweat. When Natalie came up from lunch she came into my room and said "I noticed that you wiped off the shelf above the sink, it looks really nice." I didn't mean to, but I laughed a little and then told her thank you. Honestly?! That was ALL that she noticed? She didn't realize that her hair no longer is covering every inch of the sink? That the toilet no longer has her hair and dust on it? That the floor is brighter and whiter then I've ever seen it? Okay, at least now I know not to be upset when she doesn't clean anything, because obviously she doesn't recognize when things are dirty and can't tell what clean is. Good to know. (Just so you know that I'm not bitterly ranting, I do find it slightly funny and I'm not upset that she didn't realize, I cleaned it because I didn't like it dirty, not to impress her. Plus, it was nice of her to thank me for my effort.)

I had tutoring today and that class went well. Usually that class drives me crazy, but the past two weeks have gone really well. I think it's because I'm more relaxed now and I don't let their goofing around affect me as much as I did before. Plus, I had extra Mardi Gras beads and gum so I gave each of the five kids a necklace and then used then used the gum to call on them to answer. So, if I pulled out a purple gum, the one wearing a purple necklace had to answer. They loved it!

After tutoring I went with Teacher Steffanie, her husband Bob, her daughter Eliza, Natalie, and Beth to Carp Lake where they put on a water and fireworks show. Teacher Steffanie had taken Natalie earlier, but it was the day that I had the camp at Tzu Chi. And then, on Saturday, Beth and Natalie went to the show with the Chu family, so I missed out again. I was really excited when Beth came up after lunch and asked if I wanted to go. It was really fun. We watched the water show first, then we had to wait half an hour for the fireworks show. The fireworks show didn't last very long, but then they did the same water show, but sometimes they shot of random fireworks. After the fireworks show we walked down the road and looked at the booths that were set up along the way. I had a really fun time. I did take pictures, but I didn't want to take the time to upload them just yet. I'm hanging out with Amy tomorrow and so I know I will be taking pictures then, so I'll hold off and upload things tomorrow. There are few people that have remained faithful to checking my blog everyday, so I think it'll work out anyway. (To those faithful ones, I'm sorry, you'll have to look through this post again tomorrow and hopefully I'll have the pictures up.)

After the show Beth and I sat down and talked, and turned on the television and got sucked into watching CSI: New York. That's why I'm posting later then normal, I wasn't off gallivanting, I was just in the common room watching CSI. Sad, but true.

Today was okay, but I'm glad that I actually have plans for tomorrow and will get out of the room. I don't want to waste my last week here.

Hong Kong Photos

These are up on my facebook account, but I figured it's the easiest way to share lots of pictures. Sorry that the pictures are like all face shots, but that's the way I had to do it because I was by myself.

Enjoy:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2203652&l=63f56&id=17825060

There's more:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2203657&l=5eb12&id=17825060

It's the Final Count Down!

Oh gracious, I only have a week left in Hualien. I can't believe it. I leave in a week from tomorrow (but seeing as the day is mostly over and how I'm leaving Hualien early in the morning on Monday, it's safe to call it an even week). Time has honestly gone by so fast. Beth and Natalie have both asked me what my plans are for this up and coming week. I really don't have any. I know I have to pack and get some glasses, but those are all of my "plans." I still never made it down the east cost highway, and I'd really like to do that, but June is my only friend with a car and she's in China. I was also thinking that maybe I could spend the day biking down the coast and then take the train back up. That's a viable option for Thursday (when I don't have class or tutoring) but I don't know if my bike is reliable enough to get me all the way down the coast. And I don't know if bikes are allowed on the highway. Maybe I'll talked to Yuling tomorrow and see what she thinks about it (although I'm sure she'll think it's a stupid idea and wonder why I even thought of it).

Today I had to go to church by myself. I walked outside to see if Beth was ready. I called out for her, but there was no answer. I knocked on her window, but there was no answer. Her curtain was open just enough that I could see that she was still in bed. So I left.

I saw Teacher Steffanie in Relief Society and she told me that she forgot to take my table cloth to the church building on Saturday, so it's still not done. But, she did give me the earrings she made me out of the white stones I found at the beach. She made me two pairs and I really like them. Kaylene came to church a little late, and so Steffanie was already sitting by me so Kaylene went to the row behind me. Sister Woods was next to her, and so she was behind me too, but I couldn't hear the translation that clearly, so I was a little lost during Relief Society. It was okay, because if I lost what they were talking about, I just read the manual. Sunday school was interesting. The number of white people out numbered the number of Asians for the second week in a row. We had 4 missionaries, Luke, Kaylene, Me, and Brother Carlyle is a white member of the Ji-An Branch. Then there were only like 3 investigators/ new members, and the Branch President who was our teacher for the day. Class was pretty fun, we were all laughing kind of a lot. That might have just been due to errors/misunderstandings in translation though. Even through the laughter, we had a good lesson on charity.

In sacrament, Elder Pendleton had a rough time translating. His quote was, "I feel retarded right now. Honestly, I feel handicapped." During the first talk he was struggling, but then she started reading a talk from the conference edition of the Liahona. Elder Pendelton whipped out his English copy and just read the talk to us too. For some reason, writing in Chinese is always longer then in English, so he finished before her. Then he leaned forward and said, "You think that me reading it to you is boring? Just know that everyone else is just as bored as you are, because she's just reading it to them too." The second talk was easier for him to translate, but he made a ton of grammatical errors and a few times he did some direct translations that made Kaylene and I laugh (quietly). I don't know what it is, but lately the missionaries are really struggling to get through church with all the translations. I REALLY appreciate how hard they work to make sure we at least know the gist of what's going on.

I saw Yuling's baby at church today. There were other people who wanted to hold him, so I just got to glance at him. He is so adorable. And it's funny, because this is my first time seeing him, I was expecting him to be a tiny tiny new born. Then I remembered that he's been locked up for a month, and so he's still new, but not a week old new, he's already a month, and babies can get a good deal bigger in one month (although I guess he was a pretty good size new born).

After church I spent my time loading pictures and blogging. It really did suck up all of my afternoon. Next I started cooking dinner. Luke and Kaylene didn't come, and I found that a little strange, but dinner wasn't spectacular, so it's okay that they skipped out. We waited longer then normal to start eating, but Natalie and Amy still hadn't come an hour after church ended and so Beth and I decided to eat. As soon as we had finished (an hour and a half after church ended) they come walking up the stairs. I guess that Amy had a meeting with the missionaries. I wish I would have known. I wouldn't have minded waiting if I knew when they were coming, but I figured they were coming right after church.

After dinner I did some more blogging and then went in the kitchen to talk to Amy and Natalie (and Beth came in too). Amy had to run off to tutoring before too long though, so I didn't have a chance to socialize with her too much. Beth and I decided to play a few card games while Natalie borrowed my computer to type up her evaluations. Her computer broke a couple weeks after getting here, and so she's been using the computer we have in the kitchen, but I guess that some time last week that broke too. That seriously sucks. I just got the computer back and am doing the third and final post for the day. I think I'll go and work on getting pictures of Hong Kong up on facebook so that I can set up a link here.

One Last Hurrah in Taipei

So, I got to bed really early in the morning on Saturday and had to be up at 7:30am. That gave my body six hours to recuperate. Again, it didn't work and I was pretty sore all day, but it didn't stop me, I ran around just as much as I would have if I weren't in pain.

I got up and got ready and headed out to the Temple. It was a really busy day at the Temple. I guess that 3 stakes had appointments to go at the same time. I ended up waiting for quite some time, but it was good. One of the temple workers came over and talked to me. She would go off and do her job, but she would always come back and talk with me. I really appreciated having someone to talk to, especially after being alone for the past 3 days. The mission president's wife came and spoke to me too. Actually, I don't know if she's the mission president's wife or not, but I know she's in the temple all the time. Maybe this is just their mission, to be temple workers or something. Anyway, she came over and told me it was nice to see me again and asked me to remind her where I'm from (meaning Hualien). I told her that I have to go back to school soon and she asked where. It turns out that she has a grandson who goes to BYU and that she has a grandson on a mission who, once he gets back, will be going to BYU also. Both of her grandsons play (the younger one will play) football at BYU. Wow, that's impressive. She had to get back to work, but I thought it was so nice that she remembered me and made the effort to come over and make me feel so welcome.

Eric was supposed to meet me back at my hostel at 10:45am. Normally that wouldn't have been a problem, but because the temple was so crowded, I was a little nervous. I made it back just in time, and it's a good thing that he was a couple minutes late. Our first stop was Taipei 101. This was my last chance, regardless of whether the top floor was open or not, I was going up. Yep, the top floor was closed, but I went up to the 89th floor, and that's higher then I've ever been before, so it was good. Taipei 101 has the world's fastest elevator. We went from floor 5 to floor 89 in 36 seconds. (The way back down was a little slower and took 47.) There is a wall that has the world's top 10 tallest buildings on it. It turns out that while I was in Hong Kong, I snapped a picture of the world's 10th largest building and didn't even know it. I just thought it was pretty.

Eric wanted to take me to the North coast and look at some rock formations or something. He was actually kind of excited about it, because he'd never been there. But by time we finished at 101, he figured that we wouldn't have enough time to go, walk around, and make it back in time for my train. So we went back to Taipei Main Station for lunch. We had curry, and it was pretty good. I guess that curry can be found in Taiwan, I just have been looking in the wrong places (namely Hualien).

Our next stop was to the gondola. I really wanted to go to the zoo, but Eric was confused why I would want to go. I asked if not many people went to the zoo and he said that you go, you look, and then you never go back. I got the feeling that he really didn't want to go, so I agreed to go to the gondola instead. We rode the MRT all the way out there, walked to the gondola, waited in line, bought the tickets, got up to the front of the line.... and then they closed it because there was lightening. They made an announcement that they would wait 2 hours before running it again. We didn't have 2 hours to wait and so we got a refund and left. Sad day :o(

We were trying to think of something else to do, but nothing was coming to mind because it was raining so hard and most things are out doors. We passed this little kid amazement park and so we went in just to look around. I saw a photo booth and told Eric that I wanted to take a picture because I thought it would be funny. He told me that he knew of a place that had a whole store of them and said we should go check it out.

We headed back to the hostel to pick up my bag just in case we didn't have time to come back. I had an umbrella, but regardless, I got absolutely soaked when I walked to the hostel to pick up my bags. Not only did I get soaked, but my bags did too. So when I got home, I had to empty my bag and lay out all of the papers and stuff in my bag so that they could dry.

After picking up my bag we headed out to the place Eric knew of. He kept saying that he wasn't good at the photo booth and I was so confused. Don't you just have to smile? NO! These photo booths are intense. You pose for the pictures, and then in the booth next to where you took the pictures, there is a machine where you crop and decorate your pictures. It was crazy intense. Seeing as Eric and I were both inept at it, we just called over the girls that worked there and they did it for us. They turned out so funny. It's a nice little keepsake.

Well, I didn't have a watch, and Eric was supposed to be keeping track of time for us. He's not very good at that, I guess because once the girls were done with our photos, we honestly RAN back to the MRT station. We had 22 minutes until my train left and the MRT didn't come for 4 minutes, then we were 5 stops away, with each stop taking 2 minutes. Once we got off the MRT, we again RAN to the TRA line (the train). The whole time we were waiting for the MRT and riding the MRT, I was praying that we would make it. I also prayed that it would be late. I figured that if I made it and it was late, that at least I didn't miss it. I did make it in time (I got there 2 minutes before it was time to leave) AND it was late. Wow, prayer is intense. And, I just told myself again, because it's late, I really didn't miss it. The train ended up being 30 minutes late. It was okay though. Eric bought some type of ticket that would allow him to come to the platform but not get on the train. He waited with me. He wanted to make sure that I knew the train was late (I guess so that I didn't start freaking out that I had missed it when it didn't show up). He is honestly THE sweetest guy! I told him that I would be okay waiting by myself and that he could go home, but he told me it was okay and he waited the whole time. He is such the little gentleman. When I pulled out my umbrella, he took it and held it over both of us (more over me then him), when we went back and got my bag, he insisted on carrying it everywhere, and when his MRT card ran out of money and he had to start buying the tokens, he bought mine for me too. No wonder his girlfriend begged him to marry her, she doesn't want to lose this one.

Speaking of MRT tokens.... we were in such a hurry to get up to the train, that Eric ran through MRT exit right behind someone else. He had tried to put his token in, but it didn't take. I told him I wanted it as a souvenir. So, even though you're REALLY not supposed to have one, I most definitely have a Taipei MRT token :o)

Okay, back to the train ride. The train finally came, Eric left, and I got on. I was still soaking wet from the rain and it was not very comfortable, but whatever. I made it back without a problem. I got to the train station and rode my bike back home. The other two bikes were gone and so I was able to unpack in peace. Actually, first thing I did was take a shower. Then I laid out all my stuff to dry. I was so worn out that I was hoping that I could get everything done before the girls got back so that I could be in bed and not have to talk to them. I know, I'm terrible, but you have to realize that I've been going almost non-stop for 4 days. I was SERIOUSLY tired. Well, my hopes didn't come true. Beth and Natalie came home and asked how my trip went. I gave them minimal answers and told them I'd talk more in the morning when I was less worn out. They agreed. Except, later as I was still laying things out to dry I called Beth over (Natalie had run out to pick up stuff for dinner) to my room so I could show her the stuff I bought. We ended up talking for a while. I was torn. I was so tired, but then again, I wanted to talk to someone and tell them about my trip. We compromised- we talked for a little while, but didn't go into intensive detail. That way I didn't stay up too late, but I also got some socializing in.

And that was my Saturday. Not too shabby :o)