Pictures

Okay, stop hounding me about pictures. I don't take too many, and that's why not that many are up. But, because you all begged, I decided that after tutoring I would ride around to all the places I go and take some pictures. Well, after tutoring it's dark, so.... At most places the pictures didn't turn out. But, just so you know, I road around everywhere tonight, so it's not like I didn't try to get some good pictures for you.

Never mind, apparently you can't just load up a ton of images. Sorry, you only get a couple- don't worry, there's not too many more that actually turned out anyway.

This one is just a view of the mountains from my porch on a day when the clouds were covering the mountain and were lit up. I'm a fan of the clouds.

It was too dark to get a picture of Tzu Chi campus, but I took a picture of the sign of the college I volunteer at every Thursday (you know, the one where I have to wear that hideous volunteer outfit- that I still haven't taken a picture of yet shoot)

This is a picture of the Marytr's Shrine entrance as seen from the river trail Nancy and I found during our lunch break.

A view of the river run off from a little trail Nancy and I explored on our lunch break.

These lions line the bridge that takes you to the Martyr's shrine, and every one of the lions is different.

This is a picture of the Down Town Market with the famous dumpling place that makes the dumplings out of dough, not noodles.

A view of a main road at night, while I'm stopped at a red light. I got a kick out of taking a random picture while I was stopped, and I hope the people in the scooters and cars around me got a kick out of it too.

Peace, Love, the Gap!

That (the title of the post) was the closer to letter that I got today. I've been in Taiwan over a month, and I've only gotten one letter. That's okay, I've only sent one too. It was from my loving sister Dana. Her intentions were good in sending me a mini twix, but sending chocolate in the mail is not the most ingenious idea. But after a couple hours in the fridge it turned out okay. But the getting a package was pretty much the highlight of my day!

I of course got up this morning and went for a run. For breakfast we stopped at the place we went to on Tuesday and I got a hot dog and an egg wrapped in bread and also two breakfast dumplings (don't worry, it's not really that much food, I promise). The hot dog was okay, but the dumplings were not all that great, good thing I only got two. When taking my shower I realized that I'm peeling like no other. Sick! I've been picking at my peeling skin all day. And it sickens me so, but I can't help it. Oh, but scary. I think I have skin cancer because there is this one spot on my shoulder that after it peeled, it was bright red- not like I have a sunburn that burned multiple layers (that's my whole back), but it's an intense red. I hope you can't get skin cancer in one day. Plus, I would think that was fair because I used SPF 50 and reapplied- I never do that.

Today's lessons went okay. In the morning I taught about coats and brought in a rain coat and a jacket. I realized during my first session that it would be good to show how water rolls off the rain coat and so the second and third sessions of the first class got a better lesson- sorry 4 year olds.

At lunch we went to Tzu Chi College to volunteer. Again, the students didn't talk and Director Tsai kept asking us questions and encouraging the students to speak more, but they won't. They actually do pretty well at speaking English, but I'm sure it's terrifying. And, although it is getting a little old to just go and speak about BYU for an hour, it is pretty interesting. I don't usually stop and think deeply about why I chose BYU or what makes it so different, but that's what we do every Thursday, so it is pretty good. They fed us lunch at Tzu Chi. I had a pickled egg (it tastes like a normal hard boiled egg but it's purple) with rice and beans and cabbage. And then, something new today was that in a cup they had a sweet drink with red beans and noodles. I tried it, but it tasted like the "dessert" ice I got the first week I was here and so I didn't finish it. Beans are not a dessert people!

One of the teachers from last year (Teacher Adam) is in Hualien for a month before he does an internship or something in Korea, and so he came to the school today. So in the afternoon class he said hi to the kids and passed out candy. I was completely anti-social and right when class ended, Nancy was talking to him but I went upstairs. Well, it's not like I was trying to be rude, and I did feel bad for slipping past, but I had used my laptop in the afternoon class and I don't like carrying it around around the little kids and so I wanted to go up and plug it in and then I just stayed upstairs to get ready for tutoring.

I had tutoring from 5-6:30. This group is the one that only has 3 girls and they're pretty good, so tutoring wasn't bad. At 6:30 Nancy, Kaylene, and I went out to dinner. We all ended up getting different stuff, but we got it to go so we could come back and eat here. Kaylene got this "hot pot" stuff which is soup with the weird clear noodles, and then you add in pretty much whatever you want. Whatever she ordered came with shrimp, tofu, stuffed noodles, duck blood (? we're not quite sure what it was, but she picked it out), an egg, and some other stuff. Nancy got fried pork at a place both of us were going to order steamed pork, but they didn't have any. So, I ended up just getting fried rice from a shop I'd gone to the first week I was here. Mine was kind of bland and didn't have too much food so I was disappointed and spent too much considering how disappointed I was. But, there will be more chances to try good places, so I don't have to pout over the not so good places.

So during and after dinner we sat at the table and chatted, but then Nancy had tutoring and so I came in here to blog and hopefully get ready for bed. Although, I keep on having the problem of not being able to fall asleep. So, even though I try to get into bed at a decent hour some nights (others I just stay up and talk), it doesn't do me any good because I lay in bed for over an hour thinking about how much it sucks that I know I'll be tired in the morning, but I can't sleep. Maybe it's not worth going to bed early then, if I can't sleep anyway, but every night I'm so tired and want to go to bed so bad, it just doesn't happen.

Piddly Day Off

Not the most exciting day off ever. I might as well have gone to Taichung with Ronald, I would have gotten about the same amount of stuff accomplished. I didn’t plan any excursions because I wanted this to be a day that I got a lot accomplished. I wanted to tidy up my bedroom and the bathroom, I wanted to write the script for the 3 and 4 year old graduation play, I wanted to plan my lessons for next week, and I wanted to get more things prepared for my lessons tomorrow and Friday.

Well, I succeeded in cleaning up. After my run (another day where I added on a little extra) I came back and stayed in my nasty running clothes and cleaned up. Then I showered and got dressed. That was actually pretty nasty because I put lotion on because the lotion had aloe in it and I thought it would be good for my sun burn, but because it’s so humid here, the lotion never sunk into my skin. It was already a really hot day today, so I woke up sweating and it only got worse, but to try to have lotion on my back made me feel so nasty. I worked on my computer in front of the fan until the lotion sunk in.

I was successful in writing the script of the play, which didn’t actually take as long as I thought it would, although it did take a while. I emailed it to Yuling and asked her to show Teacher Michelle (over the 3 year olds) and Teacher Jane (over the 4 year olds) but I didn’t see Yuling all day, so I don’t know if she actually got around to it. But, after I finished the play, I tried to work on my lesson plans- next week and this week’s. But my computer or the internet or something was acting up so I spent all day trying to look up stuff and pretty much got nothing done. During the lunch break, I did take a little nap- not because I needed it, but because I was so frustrated with my computer.

Oh, I did get something else done today. I did read a little about Taipei in my travel book to see what Nancy and I might want to check out. But, seeing as Taipei has 2 chapters dedicated to it, and when I started reading is when I felt the need to nap, I didn’t finish reading everything. But, I told Nancy she was in charge of where we’re going because she’s already been so I don’t want her to redo her trip, so she has to pick things that she hasn’t seen. Except that I’m making her take me to Taipei 101 which is the tallest building in the World (it has 101 stories). It cost $10 (US) to go to the top, so Nancy told me she would go, but she’s staying on the bottom because she’s not paying again- okay, I can handle that.

Yeah, so at 4:30 I tutored Kristy who is one of the 4 year olds. She is so cute and so smart. She reads super well, but her mom wants me to talk with her more to help her be less shy. Yeah, not so much. I try talking to her, but she just looks up and smiles at me, or she’ll answer in the least amount of words possible. I know she’s way smart, and she talks in class, there is just something about walking up the stairs to come to tutoring. But, she’s getting better now that I’ve tutored her a couple times. So, we’ll see how things go. Maybe eventually we’ll get to 10 minutes of reading and 10 minutes of conversation instead of 17 minutes of reading and 3 minutes of conversation.

Then I had my tutoring class. These are the ones I really like because they’re pretty well behaved, they appreciate my corny ways of teaching, and they are pretty well motivated.

I went with Kaylene to dinner after tutoring. We rode to a cart where you pick what you want and they’ll fry it. I wanted some popcorn chicken things and sweet potato fries. When he was putting it in the box to fry it for me, it didn’t look like it was that much, but when I got home, it most definitely filled me. But, it was a little more expensive then I wanted, considering the fact that I’m way low on cash. I got did get to try speaking Chinese a little more tonight though because Nancy wasn’t with me and Kaylene doesn’t try (she usually has Luke with her to talk anyways), so that was pretty good. This morning Nancy taught me to say “I also want” so when I ordered the chicken I said “Wo Yoa” and pointed to the chicken and then I said “Wo hai yao” and pointed to the fries. Then, I told him I wanted one order, “yi ge” (one of) and Kaylene didn’t want the hot spicy so I told him “bu yoa” (don’t want) and of course at the end I said “xie xie, bye-bye” (thank you, good bye). So that was fun. When I don’t have the crutch, I am able to get my point across. Even though, with enough pointing, I’m pretty sure Kaylene would have been able to get the same thing done in English, but I like to try. I just hope they appreciate the effort.

I just got done tutoring Dar-sen. Okay, spelled that way, it’s a little weird, but I’m trying to think of a way that I could spell it differently so that it’s be okay to name my future son that. I really like the name (okay, confession, it kind of just makes me think of Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice). But, this boy is a genius, and I think I wrote this last time, but he only works so slowly because he has a story to share for everything we do. Plus, the writing activities he has to do gives him a sentence like “Sally had a difficult decision to make after school” and then he has to come up with what the decision was, how to solve it, and why it was hard. So, it does take some thinking time to figure out what you want to write about.
I hope that my next day off is better then today, it was so lame. I feel so unaccomplished- and hot!

Tuesday

Nothing super exciting today. I did forget to write the other day how I tried a yellow kiwi. It was sweeter then a regular kiwi, and so less good because I like kiwi for the tart/sour taste. It's kind of funny. People here love their fruit to be super sweet, the first thing they tell you about a fruit they think is good is that it's sweet. But, they don't eat a whole bunch of desserts, just really sweet fruit.

I went for my run today with Nancy and Kaylene. I decided to start my run with them, but when we reached the normal turn around spot, I went 3 minutes past and then would meet them on the trail. Well, on the extra 3 minute run, I met a killer dog. Luckily it decided to bark at me right in front of a house with an open door and a man inside who yelled at the dog long enough for me to run away. It's sad, but I did notice that the barking dog did have a hurt leg, and I figured if worse came to worse, I could get the courage to take out its other leg so that it couldn't chase me. Terrible, I know, but it's not like that dog wasn't thinking about taking out my legs too. So, I made it back to the turn around spot in like 6 minutes and 10 seconds, so the dog didn't slow me down for too long. And I did catch up with Nancy and Kaylene, but it was not too far from the beginning of the trail (so, where the run ends). But I got a much better workout then usual because I got to go my own pace and didn't have to slow down to go theirs. I just didn't get the conversation and companionship- I got the killer dog!

My lessons went well today, I taught about buildings, the question mark, and Rapunzel. They loved the lesson on buildings because I had them build with blocks. Then it went slightly down hill from there. For the Rapunzel lesson I had them color a tower and then had them braid string to glue to the tower window to be like Rapunzel's hair. I figured it would be a good way to kill some of the time in a 45 minute class. It only killed time because the kids had to wait in line for me to braid the hair. Nancy told me that Josh had taught them how to braid before. Apparently he didn't teach them very well!

There was something new at lunch today. I had the quail eggs again, along with ground pork, noodles, and some vegetables. But, today in the soup they had these balls of meat paste (I'm not sure that's what they really were, but that's what Nancy guessed they were). It was pretty good. The lunch break was nothing special, I was cutting out towers and tying string together for the kids to braid (which, like I said, I then spent all afternoon braiding for them). I squeezed in a 20 minute nap, but was so sad when I had to wake up to go and teach.

After school I had one tutoring class from 5-6:30 and then Nancy and I headed out to dinner. We had to go to the train station first to pick up our train tickets for next weekend when we go to Green Island. After the train station we decided to wind through the streets until we could find the down town market. Surprisingly enough, we found it almost right away. It looks like we're pretty good at guessing the right streets to turn down. So we ate dinner at the market. We ended up going to the dumpling place right next to the famous dumpling place because the famous place was closed. Lame! But, the place next door wasn't pretty good too. When we finished dinner we walked around and looked at the stores. Usually we make the same one loop, but tonight we just kept walking. We walked pretty far and saw a bunch of different stores, but we didn't really go into very many. We found the alley with the more ritzy stores, and we saw some really fancy jewelry stores in like the darkest alley possible. Weird. But, again, we wondered back and it didn't take us that long to find out exactly where we were and how to get back. Tonight was a good night for navigation.

Nancy wanted juice, so we rode to our night market to chat it up with the juice boy. We ended up talking with him for at least a half hour. In the process, we found out his name is Ronald (that's his English name, obviously), that his day off is tomorrow, and that if we wanted to go to Taichung with him, he'd be all for it. I did mention that tomorrow is my day off as well and asked what time to meet him. He told me 1:40am, but then checked to make sure, "you sure? I'm so scared" OUCH! blow to the ego! Nancy tried to heal the wound by telling me that he would just be scared because he'd be nervous about talking to an incredibly hot American on the train for a few hours and introducing me to his friends. I new I liked Nancy.

So, after talking with Ronald, we decided to hit up the fruit stand to visit Nancy's boyfriend. Unfortunately Nancy's boy was gone. So, we didn't stay long. Oh, and the guy who usually lets me sample stuff tried to over charge me, and I put him in his place. "Oh, I am sorry, I am sorry, my mistake." Although, he did try to get us to by a flat of Asian pears to share with him. I told him if he paid, we'd eat, but we weren't paying.

Yeah, it was pretty fun night.

Monday, Monday

Wow, if you have young kids or you are teaching young kids, I HIGHLY recommend getting some of those shapes with holes that come with string so the kids can pretend that they are sewing. Today in my lesson on "everyday life" I taught them about sewing and had them work with those sewing toy things. Oh my gosh, they were so quiet and so good. It was amazing. Even the 3 year olds were quiet.

Yes, yes, the kids definitely noticed that teacher Brooke was sunburned. Jimmy, one of the 3 year olds said (remember, this is in the middle of class), "teacher, teacher, you, you, (pointing to his cheeks) red (big smile on his face)" "Yes Jimmy. Did Teacher Brooke go swimming on Saturday and get burned by the sun?"

But, I still got told by all the little girls that I am so beautiful. So, red or not, I'm still hot stuff around here :o)

I was proud of myself at lunch today, they always have the main lunch, then soup, and fruit. I hardly ever have the soup because it's usually cabbage in water, or some other vegetable in water, and I don't find that super appealing, so I just go straight for the fruit. But, today's soup was oysters in water. Guess who had soup today? Me! I didn't particularly enjoy it, but I just got done reading online how oysters are really good for your bones or something. So I guess that if they have it again, I'll eat it. But, today at lunch Nancy and I were talking about the food they serve these preschoolers. First of all, in America little kids are so picky about what they eat. Here, the kids aren't allowed to be picky, and most of them aren't- they'll eat what they're given. And also, in America they usually serve kids things that are easy for the kids to eat, and less messy for the teachers to clean up. Here, they were feeding the kids oysters, and we've already had spaghetti twice in the three and a half weeks I've been here.

Sadly, nothing exciting happen at lunch time. I had to get things ready for my afternoon lesson (which didn't take all that long, really), and Nancy ended up falling asleep.

After class I had tutoring with the little boy that reminded me of Roman the first time he came up in his over sized hat and with his Thomas the Tank Engine book. And after Matthew, I had a class tutor session. I really need to be getting paid soon. For the regular one hour one-on-one tutoring, they pay every time they come. I have two of those now. For the two preschoolers I have, I sent home an envelope so that I would get prepaid, but only one of the envelopes has made it back to me. And then for the group tutor sessions they pay Yuling at the end of the month and then Yuling takes out money for utilities and then pays me. It's the end of the month, so I should be getting money soon, but I don't think I'll get it until next week. Unfortunately, I'm running low on funds and am taking a trip to Taipei on Saturday. By no means am I out of money, I just don't want to go to the bank to exchange my money when I know that I'll be getting paid plenty next week. But, I'll have to do what I have to do, because there's no way I'm going to Taipei without money, that's retarded.

And, that's my day. Oh... I keep on forgetting to write about the freak lightning that comes without thunder. On Thursday when Nancy and I went out to dinner, I saw a flash of light, but when I turned around, there weren't any cars who could have put their brights on us or anything, and there was no one standing in the middle of the street taking a picture. I was so confused. And then, that night I couldn't fall asleep, and it was so hot that I opened my curtains in the hopes that a breeze would come, and at least 3 times, I saw flashes of light. Because I'm a freak and I jump to the weirdest conclusions, I was scared that someone was taking pictures through my window. But I most definitely got up and checked, but there was no one there. Then on Friday when we were waiting at McDonald's for the guys to go and get their scooter, the sky kept on lighting up. But because there were so many clouds, I couldn't be sure that it was lighting. Plus, there was no thunder, so how could it be lightning? But, when we went out to the beach, the sky was clearer and it was for sure lightning because we saw the actual lightning bolts. But I'm still so confused how there was no thunder. Thunder is the sound of lightning, so you're not supposed to be allowed to have one without the other. Are you?

Jici Beach

This is another two day entry because I was too tired and too burned to write last night.

OWE!!!! I am sooooo red. Nancy and I went to Jici Beach yesterday because it's one of the few beaches that you are allowed to swim at. It's ridiculous. I most definitely put on SPF 50 sun block before we went out, and I even re-applied in the middle of our day, but I am still lobster red! SPF 50! and I'm still bright red! Dang shoot, I've got to be a whole lot more careful when I'm in the sun from now on, because the sun is more intense here or something.

We were going to try to be at the bus station by 8:00am yesterday morning, but Nancy fell asleep when she was supposed to be doing homework the night before, so she had to write a paper before we could go, so we got a little bit later start, which turned out to be a-okay. We got to the bus stations right after 9am and handed the ticket girl a note that one of the mom's wrote for us. The note let them know that we wanted to go to Jici beach and also asked them to tell us what times the buses would come back. So, we got our tickets and they wrote down the times that bus would come back. The manager of the bus station (I'm guessing he's the manger, but he could not be) told us that we had just missed the other bus and that the next one would come at 10am. I had a feeling we had just missed the bus because the station was pretty much empty when we got there, but it was fine because there was some kind of street market set up along the next few roads, so we went exploring at the stores for a while. The tables and tents were set up all along this one road and it extended for at least a quarter of a mile I would guess, and then it would also flow into to some side streets for a little bit. Most of the booths were fruit or vegetable stands, but there were a few "things" booths that we stopped and looked at. I am really interested in buying at least one pair of shoes here. Some of the shoes are absolutely, ridiculously hideous, but there are some that I am so intrigued by. So I'll probably end up with a pair or two, but yesterday was not a day for shopping, I hadn't taken that much money with me because we were going to the beach and I had money to get me there and back, and more because I didn't know how much it would cost, so I was better safe then sorry. But, I did get to practice a few Chinese phrases yesterday at the market. We saw a watch place, and I needed a watch, but I wanted a cheap one and I had seen one at the downtown market for 100NT$ and so if by some chance one of these watches, that looked way better, were only 100NT$, I would get it. So I asked "doushao qian?" which means "how much is this?" he told me it was 100NT$, so I was pleasantly surprised and bought it. I said "xie-xie", meaning "thank you", and an older man looking at watches turned to me and said "you have very nice Chinese" I thanked him and was pretty happy, but as we were walking away, Nancy goes "it's kind of funny that you said one thing and he thinks that you have good Chinese" yeah, okay, I'm not that great, and I even had Nancy remind me how to ask "how much is it?" But at the market I had plenty of practice saying "bu yao, xie-xie" which means "I don't want it, thank you"

At 9:50 we went to wait for our 10 o'clock bus, but again, we had the tickets but didn't know which bus was ours. One pulled up, so I went up to the door, showed him the ticket and the driver waved his hand. Nope, not that one. When I came back to the curb, an older gentlemen took our tickets to see where we were going. He told us which bus we needed to get on. Seriously, I LOVE friendly/helpful people. We rode the bus for a little over an hour. Oh, it was so funny, I showed the bus driver my ticket and he said "Jici" and bowed and then Nancy came on and he apologized for not speaking English. I think he was just letting us know that he would tell us when to get off. Toward the end, we were getting a little antsy, like we had missed it, so we had our eyes peeled for the beach and the place you have to pay to get in. We saw it and the bus driver pulled over, and I'm pretty sure he was surprised to see that we knew where to get off, because he stood up and turned around to find us to tell us to get off, but we were standing right behind him.

I don't think that there was a bus stop at the place he dropped us off, he just dropped us off at the entrance, so that was pretty sweet. We walked down the driveway, paid 50NT$, and we were in. It was a black sand beach, so it killed our feet to be walking on the sand because it was so hot. As soon as we got there and looked for a place to sit, we laid out our towels, got out our lunches, and ate while we admired the view.

Did I mention there was like noone at the beach? Maybe 5 surfers, and maybe 5 other people on the beach. Definately not crowded.

After lunch we ran into the water. It was colder then the water we felt at our beach when we stuck our feet in on Tuesday, but it was still warm and it felt so nice. The current was pretty strong though. It wasn't dangerous or anything, you just had to be aware of what was happening. Mostly, it would pull us to the side and away from our stuff, but there were a few spots that would pull us back and away from shore. After realizing that Nancy wasn't used to swimming against the current, we decided to play it safe and stay way near shore.

It kind of hurt, because the bottom was rocky. Not sharp rocks, they were smooth, but they were still rocks, so it hurt if a wave dropped you and your foot hit a rock. The worst for me what that I have a bug bite on the top of my little toe, and that kept on getting scratched by some of the larger rocks. We didn't spend the whole time in the water, we rotated between swimming/floating, playing in the sand, laying out in the sun, and exploring the beach (there wasn't too much to explore). The schedule the bus station gave us listed the first return time as 4pm. So, seeing as we got there at 11am, we spent 5 hours at the beach, which was a really long time considering we were ready to leave at 2pm.

Luckily I was paying attention when we got dropped off, and I had seen the bus stop we needed to be at when we wanted to catch the bus back. There was a schedule of pick up times there, and they were a little different then the one we'd been given (times were rounded down on the one we'd been given at the bus station) and it turns out that we got to the bus stop one minute before the bus was supposed to come. So, we reached into our backpack to pull out the money right as the bus turned the corner. We scrambled to get exact change, and got on the bus.

The bus ride back was a little less then an hour because there was more down hill. Once we were on the bus, we could see and feel the sunburn setting in. And the redness only intensified as we drove.

Oh yeah, we saw a dead puffer fish on the beach, and I thought it was funny. There were no seashells or anything on the beach, only sand, rocks, wood, and trash- we saw a couple sand crabs, but this was the only creature we really saw, and it was dead.

After the beach we came home and showered to get ready to go out with a family that Nancy tutors for to celebrate the oldest girl's 13th birthday. Nancy was told that we wouldn't go until 8pm, but right after I got in the shower I heard Nancy talking to someone. They had come to pick us up at 6:00pm. I took a super quick shower and got ready and we went to their house. The mom had made an incredible spread of food. All of it was so good. Scratch that, she made chicken leg or something, and that was not enjoyable. But there was some spicy coconut stuff that was amazing, and I would have had more, but it was pretty hot. After dinner we had cake. It was honey cake (that's what they have here, it's just a lighter cake with not a whole lot of flavor) with a layer of cake, layer of pudding (not regular pudding texture, all the pudding here is more like jell), a layer of cake, a layer of tarro paste, and a layer of cake. It wasn't my favorite, but I liked it well enough.

After dinner and cake, we went upstairs (instead of having different rooms in their house, they have different floors, so the bottom is the dentist office and kitchen, there there's the living room on floor two, third floor was the game/music room, and I think the fourth floor was the bedrooms, but I'm not sure, I didn't get a tour, this is just what I saw on our way to the music room. The 13 year old played the Chinese piano for us. It was so awesome. Apparently there are only a few people who learn how to play it. It's this long piece of wood with strings attached to it that run in different directions. Okay, I did a terrible job of describing that, but look it up on google to figure it out, I guess. The songs she played definitely sounded Asian, but it sounded good and the way her fingers moved so quickly was seriously impressive.

Nancy and I weren't ready to go to bed by time dinner was over, so we went to the bakery and supermarket to buy food for today and took it back home to decide what to do. We ended up choosing to go for a walk. We walked to the fruit stand so that Nancy could flirt with her boyfriend. I guess I have a boyfriend there too because the other guy that works there like to have me try the fruit. If I ask what something is, he'll tell me, and then he'll pick one up and go cut me a piece. It comes in handy sometimes, especially when it's something that I wouldn't want to pay money for because I don't particularly enjoy it. We ended up walking pretty far, but turned around because it was getting late. And, because we were in flip-flops, our feet started hurting and we knew we shouldn't walk too much further.

When we got home, I went to my room, lathered on the aloe, and went to bed.

This morning I was still red, and I figure that I will be red for a while. We went to church an hour early because there was another baptism. It was a rough day at church though, because Nancy and I were so tired. We hadn't gotten much sleep Friday night, and being in the sun all day yesterday took it out of us. So, although the lessons were great and the talks were good (well, mostly good), it was so hard to sit there and stay awake. Oh, but at church today Nancy and I each got a CD with the pictures from Taroko Gorge on it. I haven't looked at them yet, but I will and I'll put some up later. I'll probably put them on the post of that day (last Saturday) so look for them there.

After church I napped and wrote in my blog. No big plans for today, obviously, so I'm going to go make dinner and chill.

Okay, the whole thing about me putting up pictures of Taroko Gorge was a lie. I just watched the DVD (not a CD) and I don't know how to get pictures off of the movie. But it was so funny. I definitely was not expecting to be watching a 20 minute video of all of the pictures, complete with music and captions (granted, the captions were all in Chinese characters so I have absolutely no idea what they say). I guess I'll have to have a movie night when I get home and people can look at the pictures then.

Oh, long night!

Okay, it's so late/ early, so I have to try to make this quick and cut out details. But first, I forgot to mention yesterday about how after volunteering at Tzu Chi, Director Tsai took us to a food stand to buy us some "stinky tofu" to try. Apparently everyone else had heard about it before. Nancy, Luke, and Kaylene said that they all had people tell them they needed to try it, that it smells really bad, but it tastes really good. They were right about the smell, but they were way wrong about the taste. Kaylene understood me when I described it this way, "it tastes the way a farm smells." I don't know if that's descriptive enough for anyone else, but that is the only way to put it. Nancy didn't mind it too much, she ate the rest of the box when I only ate one piece.

Okay, today I went for a run along a different trail. This one is a little farther away, flatter, and not in the trees, so I actually felt the sun on my run this morning. We stopped off at a breakfast store on the way back and got a waffle. Ehh, reheated waffles that have been sitting in the fridge for I don't know how long, nothing on top. Not my favorite. But I also bought a tarro roll to try. I loved the tarro rolls in Hawaii, so I was excited to get one. But, I bought it from the steamed roll place, so it was a steamed roll, plus it was stuffed with tarro paste. So, it wasn't horrible, but it was no Hawaiian roll.

Classes went pretty well today, Teacher Steffanie (the Chinese teacher for the 3 year olds) stepped in with suggests a lot today. Eh, they were good suggestions, so I went with it. And then today at lunch, we had another meeting. Yuling said we would have one every other week, but we most definitely had one last week. Luckily, we spent a little more then half the time talking about what we would be doing and practicing with the kids for graduation on June 14th. But, the second half of the hour long meeting was...... yep,you guessed it.... rag on Brooke's lessons for this week time. I had taken down paper to take notes, so I looked like I really appreciated the suggestions they were giving me, and I did appreciate it more today then last week, but it was hard because today they didn't even hide the fact that it was all about me. They pointed out specific parts in my lessons and mocked them. Um, yeah, not so helpful, thanks, that lesson's already passed. Oh well, I don't have time to sit and vent about that, plus, like I said, I did take notes and I do plan on using the notes to come up with better lessons.

After school I had three tutories, and Nancy's and my schedule didn't match up, so I had to eat by myself. I went to our night market and got one of those greasy french toast stuffed bread things. I decided to just eat it there because I didn't have anything better to do, but it was kind of awkward, and a lot bit funny because there were a few people at tables around me who I caught staring at me, so I'd wave and they'd laugh, but they would still stare. Then, there were a couple of people who apparently didn't know what they wanted to eat and so they would walk past me multiple times and look, whisper, and look.

Tonight it was Nancy's and my plan to go hit up a club in Hualien because we heard there was a pretty good one and we thought it would be funny. We went into a pub (that's where the dancing is supposed to take place, they don't really have clubs), but there was a live "band" which turned out to be one guy who was singing slow songs. There was definitely no dancing, and because we didn't order anything, we were asked to leave. But, it was 250 for a soda, or 250 for a beer. Um, do you see anything wrong with that? I do! (PS, 25o NT$ is about $7 in the US)

But, outside of the pub, these guys on a scooter said hello, like many people do around here. So I said hi, but these guys didn't keep driving like everyone else, they stopped and tried to have a conversation with us. One of them spoke English and the other didn't. They asked what we were doing and we told them we were trying to go dancing, but that place wasn't any good. So, they asked if we wanted to go eat food. We said sure, and we ended up going to McDonald's and only getting drinks. We talked to them for a while and it was kind of awkward because the side conversations were in different languages (ie, I would have a side conversation with Nancy in English, and the other two would talk in Chinese). Plus, the second guy really didn't speak a whole lot of Chinese.

*Note to parentals and all other worriers, this isn't scary, we did not get the creeper vibe from the guys and we were not going very far, if all else failed, we would have walked home.*
They left to go get a second scooter so that we could all go to the beach. We rode with them to a beach and they were so confused when Nancy and I rolled up our pant legs to stand in the water. People here really do not understand why anyone would want to swim in the ocean. They all think that if you want to go swimming, you just go to the pool. After a bigger wave came and got the bottom of our pants wet, we were no longer in the mood to stand in the water, so Nancy asked if we could drive their scooters. Guess what? They said yes. So, we got on and did a few circles in the parking lot. When we were done circling, we pulled up so the guys could get back on. They hopped on the back and told us to drive back. I was slightly apprehensive, but I drove. I made it back safe, and didn't get pulled over by a cop. Which is a very good thing because not only do I not have an international driver's license, I definitely wasn't carrying my CA license with me, I wasn't planning on going farther then down the road to dance. So, now Nancy and I already have experience riding scooters, which will come in handy for our trip to Green Island on June 7th-8th, and we made some new friends (who asked for our phone number, but luckily we don't have cell phones, so they asked for our emails, but I'll be okay if they forget and never talk to us again).

Told you, it was a busy night.

And Now's About the Time When the Cute Title Stop

I forgot to write yesterday about something that happened in the afternoon class. Kaylene had the kids play tag at the end of the lesson. One of the little 3 year olds got clothes lined. Two kids were running to the right with their arms out, and Meggy was running left and ran right into their out stretched arms. She went down and I heard her head hit the tile. I ran over to pick her up so that I could comfort her before she had a chance to cry. But, she just looked up at me, smiled, jumped up, and started running. She didn't make it very far before she realized the fall hurt pretty bad. She turned to find me, and when she saw me, she just started balling I ran over to her and picked her up. She just kept crying and crying and by the end of class I had the biggest tear/snot spot on my shirt. So, it was really sad that she fell and hurt her head, but I liked that I could be the one to comfort her. Because, the little kids are so cute, but I'm not really supposed to cuddle them because then they'll all want to be held all of the time. But, I wasn't teaching yesterday, and there's no way I was just going to ignore the fact that she slammed her head on the ground, so I got to be the comforting cuddle she needed.

And today... Uh, I went running, I taught a couple lessons, and they went pretty well. I hooked up my computer to the TV screen so for the first two lessons I used that. One was an online game and the other one was just pictures on a powerpoint. So, the lesson could have gone better, because I didn't really capture their attention like I'd hoped it would, but it was better then me just talking to them and drawing lame pictures on the whiteboard. My afternoon lesson went pretty well too. I talked about pilots and we made paper airplanes. Most of the kids projects turn into airplanes anyways, so at least this time the paper I gave them was meant to be thrown around the room. And, I had made three examples, and I hate to waste paper, so I probably would have kept them in my room hoping to use them some day, but luckily one kid came up and asked me for one, and I gave it to her. Then, the two other kids who were right there wanted the other two. Sweet! No clutter for me- well, I already have clutter, so it's not like there's no clutter for me, but it's more like "no extra clutter for me."

At lunch today we went to volunteer at Tzi Chi. It's kind of awkward to go there. Director Tsai keeps on having us talk about BYU and Provo and stuff, and she'll ask us questions and have each of us (Nancy, Luke, Kaylene, and I) answer the same question, and she'll try to have the students ask us questions, but the students are terrified to speak English. So, she always ends the meeting by saying, "oh, maybe next time they will have more questions to ask as they have time to think about it in the week." And every week they are still quiet. But today was funny because Nancy ended up having to give a presentation on the AIMS of BYU, even though there was absolutely no warning. When we got there Director Tsai said, "oh, we were going to pull up the Tzi Chi website and talk about our school, but the link isn't working. So, instead, I pulled up the BYU website, Nancy, would you like to show us something about BYU from the internet?" It was kind of funny, but I was quiet during the conversation because the students don't know that much English and I didn't know how to simplify what everyone else was saying. So there was a lot of repetition today.

After school today I had tutoring, and this one was not as good as yesterday's but it was hard because I tried to do small activities to get them moving, but they weren't good at it. They couldn't move and pay attention at the same time, and so we just had to stop. I mean, the parents aren't paying me to play with their kids, they're paying me to teach them. Oh, but speaking of playing with the kids, there is this one girl I tutor that comes in on Thursdays randomly just to sit in because she's waiting for her mom to pick her up. It's funny though because in tutor session she's a total brat who cops attitude the whole time, but today when she came into class she came in and was sitting on my lap and was trying to be helpful when I wanted something written or erased on the board. Weird little kid, why can't she be sweet on whatever day it is that I tutor her.

When tutoring was through Nancy and I rode to the train station to pick up our tickets for Taipei. Yuling ordered them online for us because she gets a Chinese discount, but then we had to go and pick them up (our trip is next weekend). And, on our way back we decided to stop off somewhere new. We pulled off the road to this chicken place. It was pretty good, but it was funny because we ordered and then sat down and the lady brought us over drinks (drinks usually come free with the meal, but you'll know why if you keep reading) and set them on the edge of the table. We said "Xie, Xie (Thank you)" but didn't touch them because it was tea. But, it was really sad because I got really thirsty during dinner and kept on wanting to reach over and grab my drink, but then I would remember it was tea and I would just have to be thirsty. We then decided to get some ice cream that was also along that road. The sign had legitimate ice cream on it, none of that shaved ice with beans and dumpling crap. Well, actually the sign did have the ice crap on it too, but I saw the legitimate ice cream. The ice cream was really good, and I got milk and mango flavors, and it tasted like it might have been frozen yogurt and not ice cream at all, which would be better because it's a little healthier, right? But the sad thing is that they were tiny tiny scoops for not a tiny tiny price. Sad day, but, it's not like it was break the bank expensive, so I'll live.

Day Off

Today Kaylene started teaching. After our run and our breakfast, I still got ready and went down to help her out. I went to the first hour of classes, and then for the forty minute break and the hour and a half of the second class I cleaned. I cleaned the bathroom, the kitchen, my room, and the walkway. But guess what? The kitchen is of course already messy again. Eh, it happens.

I had to eat lunch alone because I wasn't sure if I was allowed to eat lunch downstairs if I didn't teach because I didn't know if there would be enough food. So, I had some piddly top-roman stuff upstairs, cleaned some more, and then worked a little bit on my next week's lesson plans while Nancy and Kaylene took their lunch break (which they spent preparing for afternoon class). I did go to the last hour and a half of school because that's the craziest, when we teach for 45 minutes with a group of mixed ages (3, 4, and 5 year olds).

After school I tutor a preschooler before doing my group tutoring sessions. But, apparently I got my kids mixed up this week. Matthew comes Mondays and Fridays, and Kristy comes Wednesdays and Fridays. I switched them in my head so on Monday I tutored Kristy and today I tutored Matthew. On Monday it was okay because Matthew was absent, but today Teacher Michelle brought Kristy up and asked why I wasn't tutoring her. I was confused for a little while, and then I checked my schedule. Oops. Mark another screw up for Brooke. But, because both kids are getting two days in this week (like they're supposed to) it's not a big deal, I'll let it slide.

The group tutoring went by a lot better today then last night. Granted, they're different kids, but I think that I had a lot more patients with the group because I hadn't taught today. I did little stuff to liven up my lesson, and the little stuff went a long way. I have to remember that for all of my other tutoring sessions.

I started tutoring someone else today too. From 8-9pm I tutor Dar-sen who is a cute little boy (in the fifth grade kind of little) who is a genius. He lived in America twice, once for ten months and another time for 6 months. He speaks English extremely well, he apparently competed in a high level spelling bee. His mom wants us to work on his writing because he reads all the time at home, so his reading and comprehension is outstanding, but his writing is slow. It took us the whole hour of tutoring to do one writing page in his workbook. It's not because he's dumb, it's because he's a talker. The page would give him topic sentences and then he would write three supporting sentences to make a complete paragraph, and he would just start talking to me about the topic of the paragraph, or about his sister, or about his questions about life (I've always wondered why cats don't drool). It also went by slowly because he wrote one of the paragraphs in cursive, and he needed to think really hard about how to write each letter. I was proud of myself for remembering all of the letters, upper case and lower case, in cursive. I did have to look them up to double check, but I was right. (You don't have to point out that it's not that impressive. I am quite aware of the fact that cursive is a 3rd grade topic.)

So I know I'm really going to enjoy tutoring Dar-sen, but I'll have to see how much I enjoy tutoring until 9pm. Especially since I still need to get some facts pulled together for class tomorrow.

Terrific Tuesday

Today wasn't all that terrific, but really, how long can I be expected to come up with catchy titles? I'm going to be here for 4 months.

Nancy and I went for our run. On the way home, we stopped at the small little breakfast place that's right on our way home. I was going to be so brave and use my Chinese to tell her we bought "12 (shi er)" dumplings and "2 soy millks (lianga dou jiang)" and I had my 60 dollars ready, but when we finally made it up to the counter, I just handed her my money, but she didn't know what we bought, so I froze and Nancy took over. Oh crap, I'd better get less intimidated about talking. It's super good that Nancy's here to save the day, but I think I use her- no, I know I use her- as a crutch too much.

I did get to talk to my Mom and Dad this morning though. Uh, for 5 minutes. I had to make sure my Dad thought it would be okay to go to Thailand by myself. He didn't :o( Well, technically he said that if I could convince Yuling it was okay, I could go. But really, that's all I had time to hear because I had to shower and get ready for class.

Classes went by fast today. I think that means that they weren't stressful, and my lesson plans were long enough so I wasn't having to freak out about making up stuff off the top of my head. Man, little Asian kids will laugh at anything. Because I called my parents and got a late start to my getting ready routine, my hair was still damp when I went to class. Don't worry, Joy most definitely pointed it out and they all laughed. They couldn't understand why I would take a shower in the morning (they all take theirs at night) and so therefore could not understand why my hair was wet. And, we talked about a zookeeper job today in my last class and so we talked about elephants, and I most definitely am pro at making elephant noises (thanks Isaac for giving me plenty of opportunities to practice). So, I made an elephant noise in class, and instead of being impressed, they laughed. But then they tried it and just spit everywhere. Nice.

We got to end school a little early today, because it's Ally's birthday and so at 4:10 we let the kids out and they all gathered together to sing and take pictures and eat cake. That was sweet for a couple reasons. One, my two 45 minute classes were only 35 minutes today. And two, I got some cake too. Oh, and this weird little bottle of liquid that Nancy tells me is yogurt. Yeah, after she told me, I could see how it was yogurt, but it was only slightly thicker then juice, so it definitely threw me off.

After class I had my tutoring group from 5-6:30pm. One boy in there was highly unmotivated and it was making me so frustrated. I tried to make it more exciting, but I really need to get better making it more fun then just reading the book and answering questions.

But, after tutoring Nancy and I went to the juice stand to pick up juice for dinner, and see how the boy liked the brownie. He said that he liked it but that it was way too sweet. Well, that's to be expected since they think that a good dessert is shaved ice with dumplings and beans. Weird-os! Then we headed to the down town market for the super cheap, super good dumplings that we bagged up and took to the beach. While we were at the market, I turned around and saw the missionaries. Nancy was way confused about who I was waving at she told me in her head she thought, "who is she waving to, we don't know anyone here." So, we stopped and chatted to them for a little bit, but then let them get back to contacting people and the like. You know, that missionary stuff.

Then we went down to the beach and ate dinner and talked a while. It was really pretty, but it was too bright. There was this mega light up on the hill that lit everything up. Okay, that's good because it would be pretty creepy, I imagine, at night if you had to walk or ride on a dark path, but it made the beach too bright to enjoy the moonlight on the water. I got up to feel the water, to feel how cold it was. Oh my gracious, it was SOOO warm. It was amazing and I just wanted to jump in. I'm super bummed that you can't swim in that water. Because, seriously, it felt so good. Even later at night (we didn't get there until 7:30pm or later) it was still so warm.

And, once we felt too uncomfortable around the one couple on the beach, we picked up our bikes and went home. We're not talking right now, so maybe there's a chance that I'll get to go to bed early-ish tonight.

Monday Morning, Came Without Warning

I'm only half sure about what song that title comes from so don't even ask. Okay, today I went running, we had stuffed steamed rolls for breakfast. I think those things are good, but I could stand to switch things up every now and again, but apparently Kaylene could live off of them and Nancy really likes them too.

Kaylene is going to start teach on Wednesday now. Yuling is having her teach one day a week to pay for the utilities since they're staying here for free. Which, is good and bad for me. Nancy says that it will make my weeks go by faster because I'll have only have to teach for two days and then get a break, teach two more days, and then get a weekend. But really? What's the point of having a day off when I'm the only one? And when it's just one day? But I'm going to use Wednesday as my lesson planning day instead of Sunday, and if I get proficient at that, then I can go exploring the city on my bike, because I haven't really done much of that, I only go where I've been before.

Oh yeah, so because Kaylene is going to start teaching on Wednesdays, she came to watch the class and introduce herself to the kids. I liked her being there. For one, it made time go by faster, and two, for at least the first class, the kids were a lot better behaved.

Nothing special at lunch today, no weird food (oh, I did try orange watermelon) and nothing exciting. I looked up information to teach to the kids about mail carriers, but the internet was acting up so I really just spent my whole lunch frustrated while Nancy napped instead of working on her Linguistics 230 homework which is due on the 23rd. Um, the semester is most definitely over, so how her work isn't due yet I don't know, but it's not.

After class I had tutoring and then waited for Nancy to finish her tutoring and then we rode to our night market to get fruit juice. Last Friday we went and he juice boy was so confused why we had a bag of sugar in our bike basket and when we told him we were going to make brownies, he had no idea what a brownie was. So, Nancy and I saved a brownie from last night and delivered it to the juice boy. He was quite terrified to take it and I don't know if he'll even eat it. But it sure was funny. Mmmmm. I had a watermelon juice tonight and it was good. I didn't really think about ever juicing a watermelon because all the fruit is is juice, but it'd be something to get again I think.

Yeah, so after our adventure to the juice store, we went to the fruit stand to chat it up with our boys there. Just kidding, I needed some fruit, and it just so happens that we always get a kick out of going there. One of the bonuses of going to the stand we do is that they usually have really good music playing. Unfortunately that was not the case tonight, they had weird techno-ish music playing. Sad day. But after that trip, Nancy and I came back and talked while we drank our juice.

When I came in and looked at the clock and saw that it was only 9:40pm, I was excited that I was going to get to go to bed early tonight. Yeah, not quite the case, we've been talking more. But since Nancy has homework to do, I'm trying to shut her out of my room. Hopefully it'll work and I can at least go to bed before 10:45pm.

Sunday Late Night

Oh gosh, it's 11:30pm and I just finished my lesson planning and I desperately need to go to sleep, so hopefully I can just whip this out in no time. But, seeing as it's me, that's probably not going to happen. It's not my fault that it took so long to do the lessons though, I started at like 6:30pm, but Nancy and I have been talking on and off and not focusing too hard on the planning. It's so hard to just come up with lessons off the top of your head without knowing what they've learned before. Plus, I'm super paranoid because apparently the Chinese teachers take notes on my lessons so they can tattle on me to Yuling later (that's not really how it goes, they're really nice, but they are definitely taking notes).

Okay, quick, what was funny or exciting about today? Well, I am surprised that I'm not sore at all from the hike. And, all the guys were surprised that I'm not sore at all. I saw a couple of them hobbling around church today. And, after church was over, Yuling comes up to Nancy and I, hits our thighs and asks if we're sore. We tell her we're not and she told us how the men came up to her and told her that next time no Relief Society Sisters are allowed. She got scared and asked if we held them back or got hurt or if they had any problems with us. They told her that we just embarrassed them because we did so well. Then they told her that her American teachers are strong, strong like cows. I prefer the Book of Mormon reference they made yesterday over being compared to a cow. But, being stronger then a cow is better then a different way they could have compared me to a cow.

And then, after church Luke, Kaylene, Nancy, and I ate dinner together to celebrate Luke's birthday which was last Friday. It was pretty good. Kaylene tried to make chicken Alfredo, but it didn't taste like it at all. It was still way good, it just couldn't be called chicken Alfredo. After dinner we chatted it up and played a game of spades. Then, it was most definitely 6:30pm when Nancy and I separated and went to our rooms to work on lesson plans, and it's most definitely 11:34pm and I'm scrambling to finish this up after completing my lesson plans. But, since that's all that happened today, I can end. Yes. Peace out suckers, I'm going to bed.

What a Blast

Today Nancy and I butted in on the Priesthood hiking activity. We pulled into the church parking lot and Yuling's husband looked at us funny. Nancy told him Yuling said we could come. We locked up our bikes and he asked if we had enough water. We told him we had water and food. He said good, but we know he was disappointed that he couldn't send us home. We told him that we could for sure handle it, we enjoy outdoor things and we run every day. After we told him we run every day he relaxed a little more. So, we went to Taroko Gorge again (just like last Saturday) only this time the ride was free and went a lot faster.

Yuling told us that this would be an all day hike and that it would be a for reals hike, not like the pansy paved ones we did last weekend. So, when we started off hiking on a wooden ramp that reminded me of the San Diego Zoo, I was disappointed. Then when we went to the sign and Branch President Cheng pointed out the trail and how it was a 5k trail, Nancy and I looked at each other like "how the heck is 3.1 miles supposed to take us all day?" Well, the ramp ended at the sign, but it was still a well groomed trail, until we took a turn off that went straight up the mountain. I'm not even kidding you. We were hiking mountain goat style, straight up the rocks.

It was awesome. It was killer, but I was so excited to be hiking on a real hiking path, and not a touristy paved trail. And, it was so funny, the men kept on saying "Ladies first" which was really nice, that way President Cheng could lead, and then we wouldn't be left behind because every one was behind us. Well, although there were good intentions in that saying, it was also that most of the guys couldn't keep up. We would stop to take breaks every so often, and I would turn around and half of our people (only 11 people showed up to go on the hike) would be with us, the others had to catch up.

So, because the trail was slightly traitorous, I didn't get to enjoy the broader scenery as much as I did last week, but I did have the opportunity to study more of the plant life and bug life on the ground (not because I fell, just because I had to stare at the ground- I promise, there were several times when I slipped or had a close call, but I didn't fall a single time on the hike- although plenty of others did). And, apparently there were monkeys in the jungle and one of the guys (a dad of one of the preschoolers) saw some, but I had no idea where he was pointing- I wonder if he was lying.

So, after we had gone pretty far up, we came to a bunch of old cables that used to be used to transport logs from the mountain down to the basin. When you're looking up from the Taroko Gorge Headquarters, it looks like that is the top of the mountain. It's not. The rest of the mountain is just covered in a fog most of the time that you can't see it. So, once we hit that spot (not even half our trip up), we started walking in the mist/the clouds. That was so awesome. It started to rain as we got higher up too, but I was so wet from my sweating that I didn't even bother with my rain jacket.

Well, we finally made it as far as we were going to go, and we ate lunch at another old cable transport place, but apparently this one had been built by the Japanese. Then we headed down via a different route. On the way down we passed an old village which I think a few people still live in, but there are abandoned places too. That didn't matter, we looked at all the buildings: the occupied and the abandoned. Luckily the people weren't home at the time, but Nancy and I felt pretty awkward walking around someone's backyard and staring at their chicken coops. Plus, some of these places- wait, I take it back- all of these places were out of our way, but the guys seemed to enjoy themselves.

Oh yeah, along the side of the trail, one of the men picked a plant. When it came out of the ground, I could tell they were onions. I thought that was weird, but they had been picking plants, flowers, and bamboo all along the trail and chewing on it, so it shouldn't have surprised me too much. Anyway, he pulled off the top and the roots and when we were checking out the village, he washed them off and handed some out. He told Nancy and I, you have to try this. I'm not really an onion person. It's taken me a while to even be able to eat them in other foods, so I was not too excited to eat one plain, but I did it. Yep, it was an onion alright, and yep, it was pretty nasty. Because I do only eat onions with something, I didn't know that onions were hot. Maybe I'm a moron (well, we all know I am, but in this particular circumstance), but at least I know now.

So we took a different, more round about, slightly less steep path down. The problem was, that it hadn't just rained at the top of the mountain, it had rained all the way down (the sounds retarded to actually write, but you better know what I mean). So, the trail was super slick (that's when most of the people fell). The hike up was mostly rock, like I said at first, and then it turned into a rain forest trail at the top, and the whole trail down was rain forest.

When we got to the bottom, we were no where near the gorge headquarters. President Cheng saw someone and started chatting it up with him. So, the guy showed us to the river (maybe like 20 feet away) and so I thought we would follow the river to the red bridge that Nancy and I started our hike at last week. No, it turns out that we were just chilling for 15-20-25 minutes. Then, when we decided to leave the river, we went and ate at this guys "restaurant." Okay, it's definitely not a restaurant. We had juice boxes and top-roman type stuff. So we stayed and visited with them for a while. By now, it was 3pm (we left the church at 8am and got to Taroko by 9am). So I was ready to be walking back and being close to done, but Nancy tells me that they try to make church activities last as long as possible- they succeed. So, when we finally left that place, we saw a sign that told us that it was 4.something k back to the headquarters. It turns out that we followed the path and it turned into the first hike that Nancy and I did last weekend, so that was good because we knew approximately how long it would take to get back.

The guys were so impressed with how well Nancy and I did today. One of them told us we were like the women in the Book of Mormon who were made strong just like the men (when Lehi and his family was traveling in the wilderness and the wives of Nephi, Laman, Lemuel, and Sam were giving birth, taking care of babies, and still keeping up with their husbands in the wilderness). I wouldn't say we were that tough, but we did out last most of them.

The ride back was a little under an hour, so I think that we made it back to the church by 5pm. So, yep, the hike did indeed last all day, and it lasted all day because the first 5k was straight up a mountain, and the way down was a total meander where President Cheng lead us where ever he wanted, then we chilled in the river, then we ate with some local, etc.

Oh, embarrassing, one time President Cheng pointed at a monkey (there really was no monkey) and so I did my monkey impersonation. They thought it was great, and had me do it again so that the other half of the group would think there was a monkey. They did. But, after every one in the group already knew the noise was me, they still had me do it at random times just because they thought it was funny. And, something else kind of embarrassing that happened today was that I realized how much of a screamer I am. Not when I saw bugs or anything, that's old hat now that I had that giant one in (okay, near) my kitchen. But, every time I would slip (not fall, remember, I stayed on my feet the whole time) I couldn't help but scream (at least squeak). I felt so bad because I made it sound really bad, but because I started laughing hysterically right after the scream, I'm sure they knew I was okay.

So, after Nancy and I got back, we showered and then we headed down town to see if there were any good movies playing. The movie theater only had 7 movies, but luckily I was interested in seeing one of them. We bought tickets to see 21 (the one about the students from MIT who count cards and win lots of money in Vegas). I really liked it, I thought that it was really good. Then, we rode home in the rain, and now I am sitting and typing. When I started typing, I was still a little wet, but I think that I am all dry now.

Oh, and sorry about there not being any pictures, but I only took like two, and I'm really hoping I can just get pictures of the trip from one of the guys who had a professional camera and was snapping shots the whole time. If not, well then, I'm pretty much scriz-ewed because I really only have like two pictures of today.

Friday!!!!

Warning: If this is more non-sensical then normal, it's because I'm listening to music to drown out other noise and I don't multi-task very well, Dad trained me not to multi-task with his no homework in front of TV rule. So, sorry.

Oh gosh, so I shouldn't be this excited for the weekends, because I don't want to be tired of teaching. But, this was just a rough week, so I was so looking forward to today. But all of my classes went pretty well today, so I'm not dreading Monday, and I'm not losing faith in a teaching career just yet. Just kidding, it's really not that bad, but when lessons don't go how I want I get really down on myself and there were multiple lessons that didn't fly how I wanted them to.

There is nothing too exciting about my day today. Except that many cute little girls came up and told me that I was beautiful, and I got a new compliment today "teacher, you're cool" And, May told me that I was beautiful because I was wearing a skirt, and since I was the only one wearing a skirt, I was the only beautiful one. Today while we were riding out bikes, Nancy asked me if I was going to miss being so hot when I got back to America. I thought that she meant temperature wise and I was confused, but then she said because everyone makes sure to say hi to us and they always stare and look when we go by, she was asking if when I went home I was going to miss being a hot thing to look at. I told her I would miss the little girls calling me beautiful more then I would miss the guys driving by in trucks calling out the window.

For an hour of our lunch break today, we had a teacher meeting with Yuling, the Chinese teachers, Nancy, and I. Yuling said that the meetings aren't to make any one feel like a bad teacher, it's just a way for all of us to know how to improve. However, it was a straight hour of Yuling talking about things that I do and letting me know that they're not right. I mean, we were talking about notes that the Chinese teachers took in class, so we weren't talking about their teaching habits, and Nancy's only got 5 weeks left, so she says that the meetings don't apply to her because they figure that if she hasn't changed by now she's not going to. I HATED that meeting. Plus, there were some things that she said that I wanted to explain because it sounds like she didn't get the whole story or something, but I just sat there and nodded my head like I understood what she wanted me to fix. And, it wasn't all that bad, because Yuling is a big talker, so we only talked about a few things, but it was really focused on my flaws. Which, okay, I need to learn how to take corrective criticism, but not in front of everyone, and not for an hour. So I was terrified that my afternoon class wouldn't go well because I'd be depressed, but that was actually the best class of the week. And, I had already been planning on doing a lot of the tips that Yuling had given me in the meeting today. I know that I'm not a stellar teacher, but I'm not terrible either. But Yuling did keep pointing out how difficult it is to teach preschoolers, especially 3 year olds, and that if I can learn to handle these kids who are not only really young, but are from a different country then I am, then I'll be able to handle ANY class they give me back in the states.

After school I was supposed to tutor two preschoolers and then a first grader. Both of the preschoolers were not in school today, so I had an hour break before my 6-7 tutor session. The boy came up early, so I started early and ended early. But, I hear "Teacher Brooke, Teacher Brooke." Yuling was calling me and so I went downstairs and she was checking to see if I was still supposed to be teaching Willy. I told him that he came up early and so I started early but that it had been an hour. It turns out that his mom can't pick him up until after seven, so it's not good to start early. But, not my fault, Yuling is the one that sent him upstairs early. So, I talked to Yuling a while while we waited for Willy's mom to come. It turns out that the mom had told him to stay upstairs because she knew that she wouldn't be there on time, but he forgot. Well, now we know for next time.

After Willy was finally gone, I went down town to the market there to pick up some dinner. Last time Nancy and I went there (to get the dumplings) I saw something I wanted to try, and so I went down. Although it's not too hard to get around and order food around here, I do hate that I can't read the prices sign. And, I've never been worried about being ripped off because I'm white, but tonight I worry that I way over paid. The guy handed me a plate and told me to choose. Last time that happened to me, it turns out that it was an all you can eat place and I vastly under loaded my plate. So, I didn't want to make the same mistake, so I loaded my plate with new things to try. It turns out that this is not like the other place and you pay for each thing you get. Suck! It was especially lame because practically nothing was good. So, I paid a whole lot (comparatively) for some food that was nasty and room temperature.

I decided to walk around the market a little bit, but then decided that I wasn't going to buy anything so I headed to the beach (I was already pretty close to it). I didn't go onto the sand/rocks, but I rode my bike to a pretty close over look. I sat there for a while, but told myself that I should go because I had no idea what time it was and if I let myself, I could stay and watch the water all night long. It's so peaceful and gorgeous.

There is a slight change of plans. Tomorrow Nancy and I were going to go to the Relief Society activity where we were going to learn how to cook something. Well, it turns out that their learning to cook sticky rice that Yuling says isn't very good and we couldn't even make back in the states. The guys, however, are going on a hike near Taroko Gorge that is apparently a legitimate hike. So, Nancy and I are going to crash the guy's party. Yuling says it would be okay, but she thinks it's weird and doesn't understand how we could go hiking for fun. So, the other reason I pulled myself away from the beach was because I had to go to the bakery and super market before they closed so that I could pick up some lunch to pack tomorrow for the trip.

One other change in weekend plans that I keep forgetting to update is that the Green Island trip has been moved to June 7th because the weekend we wanted to go (next weekend) was already booked by time Yuling called.

So, I think I hear Nancy coming home from her tutoring, but I hope that we don't keep each other up because we have to meet everyone at the church at 7:30am so we can leave at 8:00am. And I desperately need my sleep. I definitely have not been getting enough.

Thrilling Thursday

Guess what today was? It was volunteer day at Tzu Chi! That means that I wore that super stylin' outfit. Sorry, no pictures today. After teaching we have to run and hurry to change, and then we got back too late today. But, I don' t know how much I would really want to post that picture anyway. I mean I'm already not photogenic, and then to put me in that monstrosity would not make for a very flattering picture.



Any who, today I went running, and grabbed something new to eat for breakfast at the morning market. Have I said yet that the vegetables here are HUGE?! Seriously, I forget every time until I see them again, but today I saw a giant squash that was honestly over two feet long, but then it had the width to match, it's not like it was a super long and skinny bean or something, this was a gianormous squash. So, if I want to try to snack healthy, I don't really know what to do because I don't want to have to buy one of these huge vegetables and only eat one kind of vegetable for a month. Anyway, I didn't buy vegetables this morning, I only saw them. Nancy and I got biscuits stuffed (of course it was stuffed bread- what else would it be?) with bamboo. It was pretty good and of course cheap. Oh, speaking of cheap, I have to make a correction to my yesterday's entry. The roses weren't 3 cents each, it turns out that when you convert it, the roses were 30 cents each. Still, not too shabby for a long stem rose.



Classes today did not go so well. I got in trouble, well, I wasn't in trouble, they just explained to me that something I was doing in the class wasn't how things are usually done. But, I hate when I mess up and I especially hate when I'm called out on it, so I was in a grumpier mood today. Plus it didn't help that for my second class I was done super early and had no idea what I was going to do for like 10 extra minutes. So, for the second and third session of the second class I was able to stretch the lesson out, but I had 10 extra minutes with the first session, which is the 3 year olds. Yeah, I was stressing. Luckily 3 year olds like games and pretending that they're flowers (my lesson dealt with flowers, it's not like they're all fruity or something).



Yeah, so at lunch time we went to the college to volunteer. There were more Chinese students there today, but we did pretty much the same thing. We would ask questions about their school, all of them would be too scared to answer, one of them would be brave enough to ask us a question about America or BYU, and all of us would have an opinion so we could carry most of the conversation. Poor kids, I know that they're scared to speak English and it's pretty uncomfortable for us to be there, and I'm sure they don't understand most of what we say even though we try to simplify it. But, if they're planning to go to BYU in September (that's what we're prepping them for) then they're going to have to get used to hearing and speaking English I guess. They fed us at the university. There was a dish with small tomatoes, and even though I only eat tomatoes if they're on something, ever since Nancy told me they were super healthy, I told myself that I was going to have to just suck it up and eat some. I haven't gotten around to buying a bag, so it was good that they were there because now I know that I don't have to buy a bag of them. I ate the ones I was given, but I did not enjoy it. So, if I bought a bag of them, they were get moldy before I even attempted to eat them all.



The afternoon class was okay, but again, I didn't really have enough planned, so I tried to stretch things out. But, I did find out that they actually learned from me. Nancy and I both taught about planets today, and so she asked the group that went to her after coming to me all about the planets, and they knew a lot. Except they told Nancy that I didn't teach them about Neptune. Uh, yeah right. That's the planet that moves so slowly that 1 year on Neptune is equal to 165 years on Earth, and I made them get out of their chairs and walk around the room as slowly as Neptune. Go figure that the one where I get them physically involved is the one they don't remember.



After school I had tutoring. These girls are good at getting their work done, they just do it so slowly. But it was funny. One of the girls that's in one of the tutor groups on a different night came into the room and told me that she wanted to help give points out (if students get a right answer, I'll give them a point and Josh did it that if they got 10 points they could start a game, and anyone with three or more points could play the game). So, Jenny helped out with tutoring today for a little while, until her mom came to pick her up. I don't even understand why she was there, I don't know that she has any siblings at the preschool, but maybe she does.



Oh gosh, I have to share, because I keep on forgetting. On Saturday I counted and I have 52 bug bites. I'm sure that I have more by now. But the bad part is that aloe vera doesn't even soothe it anymore. And, I've given up on avoiding scratching them, now I just scratch the top of the bug bites of hoping that they won't itch, they'll just hurt. Oh no, now I most definitely have scabs all over my arms and legs, plus the bug bites itch AND hurt. I don't get it. I don't see that many bugs, and I never see any one me, but I have they're marks all over my!



Okay, so after tutoring Nancy and I went down town to grab the super good dough dumplings because they are super cheap and we've been spending a little more on dinners recently. We walked around for a little while but Nancy wanted to grab a juice at our night market so we headed back. I got a mango, pineapple, papaya juice and it tasted oh so good. Nancy is so friendly. The guy at the juice place knows us because at least one of the four of us white people gets a juice/smoothie each night, and so we're pretty memorable. But, Nancy wanted to know what some syrupy thing was that he put into the blender when he mixed it up. He told us it was sugar, and Nancy was confused because it was in liquid form so she showed him the bag of sugar she had just bought at the store so she could make brownies. He was so confused why we would have bought a bag of sugar. We tried to tell him the sugar was to make brownies, but I don't think he knows what brownies are.



We got back to the house and drank our juice while Nancy waited for her tutorie to come. Luke and Kaylene were watching a movie, so Nancy couldn't use the kitchen table to tutor like usual, and Nancy doesn't have a desk in her bedroom, so I told her that I would just go for an hour bike ride or so and she could tutor in my room. So, I headed out. I found a new way to get to the other night/afternoon market, and then headed to Tzu Chi college. I passed the college and went to a Taoist temple and turned down that road to see where it would take me. I was going by some houses and a dog started following me. I pedaled faster and it kept chasing me. I kept pedaling, but it started growling and barking at me. It finally just gave up. My heart was pounding so fast. I said a prayer of thanks that the dog hadn't gotten a hold of my ankles or anything and then prayed that I would be able to find a new road to connect back to or that at least by the time I turned around, that dog wouldn't be there any more. Before the prayer was over, the road started to look familiar to me. Some how I had connected up to the road that takes me to my morning running trail. I went all the way to the trail just to double check. Going up to the trail, I had to pass a pack of dogs that started to bark at me. They lost interest pretty fast, but as soon as they lost interest I had to turn around, so they started barking and following me. Luckily they didn't put up too much of a fight and I got away. I booked it home after that. I knew exactly where I was and I knew that there were plenty of stray dogs on the way back. Fortunately I wasn't even barked at on the way back and I met up with the regular types of dogs that don't care what so ever for people and they'll just do their own thing, and I met up with dogs that are so afraid of their own shadow that they flee from you.

Well, I've got clothes in the laundry that I've got to get out and hang up so that I can go to bed.