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.