Sunburn Saturday

Oh man, my arms are seriously red right now. Let me tell you why.....

I woke up this morning and went out to a new running trail I had found on Wednesday. Holy Cow! First of all, I had to bike up a steep hill to get to the trail, and then the trail itself just took me up and up and up. Well, it's not like it was straight up, it did curve. I had taken my camera to get some pictures of the trail and so I wasn't expecting that it would be a super strenuous run or anything. But honestly, it's a good thing I had my camera so I had an excuse to stop every so often. Unfortunately the trail itself wasn't that beautiful and because it was up a mountain, I had the same overlooking view, just from different heights. So, as you look through the pictures, if they all look the same it's because they are.

But that's not even why I got sunburned. That came later. When I got back from my run I ate showered and uploaded pictures of Thailand so that everyone can finally see what I was doing when I was gone all that time. Then Natalie and I headed out. She really wanted some cute stationary so I took her to a store Nancy and I had found. We spent WAY too long there. The store was hot and I was bored and she spent 25 minutes in the store, no exaggeration. Anyway, I tried to suck it up, but it was hard. Funny story though, as when we were in the store, I noticed that there were a lot of cars out front and two police cars. By the time we came out, a police officer was giving a lady a breathalyzer test. I don't know what happened, but I'm guessing there was an accident and that one of the drivers looked intoxicated.

Once we left the store we went to the bakery to pick up lunch. I had wanted to check out a pizza place I'd seen before but when we biked past it, it was closed. We grabbed some food and headed out to the beach. The beach looks really different in the day time. It's still beautiful, just a brighter kind of beautiful. After eating we went along the trail that leads to the Japanese barracks/hostel thing that Nancy took me to my first weekend. We walked around there and looked at some art work that was being displayed in the rooms. It was more crowded today. I'm guessing it's because it's summer break. That makes me nervous that everywhere I want to go from now on will be crowded. We'll see.

When we were done exploring the hostel we headed out toward Carrefore. Carrefore is a giant store that apparently has everything you would need. I'd been out to it and past it before, but I'd never been inside. I decided I wanted to check it out and so Natalie and I biked our way out there. It really is a big store. At the basement level, there is an arcade, on the ground level is the grocery store, second level is clothing, and the third level was electronics. I went to search the grocery store hoping that as I walked down the isles something would catch my eye that we could make for Sunday dinner (we've decided to make Sunday dinners together now, the 4 of us). Unfortunately nothing did catch my eye so I got some fruit and checked out.

But that's how I got burned, it was all the running around I did today. On the way to Carrefore I could already see my skin turning red and I could for sure feel it. It's in no way as bad as when Nancy and I went to Jici, but it's still more then I care for. The best part is my watch tan. In Thailand I bought a new watch that is a large flowerish shape with a small watch in the middle. So, my arm is red with a bright white flower on my wrist. It's pretty entertaining :o)

When we got back home Luke and Kaylene were already back from going to Taroko (one of the families Kaylene tutors for invited them to join them today). I told Kaylene I wasn't able to get inspired by walking down the food isles so she needed to help plan dinner. I guess the mother they went to Taroko with told them about a farmers market that we'd never been to. We decided to go check it out. We weren't able to find it right away, but we did eventually. It turned out to be a really great market, with lots of varieties of food. I tried this fried bread with sesame seeds. Luke says it's Japanese, but the reason I tried it was because he says he loves it. It did taste pretty good so I'm glad I tried it. As we were walking around we decided that we were going to have chicken and pineapple in b-b-q sauce over rice with corn on the cob as our vegetable. I'm excited, that sounds really good to me. We were going to have fish in coconut sauce but Natalie was way scared by the fact that the fish were still looking at us. Then Kaylene saw shrimp and really started to crave shrimp and pineapple in a coconut sauce. But again, Natalie doesn't like seafood. I feel really nervous for this girl. She's not adventurous in her eating and doesn't like seafood. I wonder if she plans on eating peanut butter sandwiches the whole 6 months she's here. All I can do is try to wean her into the food, but once I leave... well, Steffanie and Yuling will take care of her so I guess I don't really have to worry.

So I'm really excited for tomorrow's dinner. But, even before dinner, I'm excited for tomorrow morning. Director Tsai has invited Luke, Kaylene, and me to go and meet Master Cheng Yen who is like the equivalent of the prophet in this particular Buddist sect. We are going at 6am and Director Tsai has promised that we'll be back in time for church. It's a big honor to be invited to the abode (where Master Cheng Yen lives) and so I'm okay with putting on the volunteer suit :o) I hope I can be a little less red by morning before I go and meet her.