Who knew that there were still places in Ji-An that I still hadn't explored?
Today Natalie did wake up and come running with me. But that's as far as it went... she came running with me, but less then a minute into the run she got distracted by a lizard. I didn't know how long she was going to spend hunting it down and so I kept running. I passed her on my way back, but she didn't turn around to run with me, she decided to finish the trail. Normally that would have been fine, but my bike lock fell out of a hole in my basket last night and so I had to lock my bike to hers. It was good having to wait for her though because I never take time to stretch on my own. So this forced me to get in a little bit of a stretch, which actually felt really good and was definitely needed.
After the run I went to go explore on the bike path that I found last Wednesday. I'm kind of glad that I have two cameras now. The one is the fancy one that I'm having fun playing wit
h and the old one I feel okay bringing in my bike when I go over bumps and I am okay with running with it and letting it get a little sweaty. I headed out in a different direction then I went last week and looked up and saw a big blue and white something off in the distance. I remember that Adam told Nancy and I about this large memorial in the mountains. I was interested in finding it, but we never had time to go search for it. I had forgotten all about it until this morning when I saw it up on the hill. I made my way over there. It was weird. It had military equipment set up on display around it so I wonder if it is some kind of war memorial. There were LOTS of stairs that had been covered by lots of spider webs, yick! I was a little bit hesitant at first because it was eerie that there was NO one there. But then I thought that it was good because if for some reason it was inappropriate to walk around in my running clothes and take pictures, there was no one there to tell me so and to stop me. I hiked up the stairs to the main hall but it was closed, so I really don't know what this place was. All I know is that is was beautiful.
After checking out the memorial I decided to check out a cemetery that I had seen from the bike path. I snapped a couple of pictures, but really didn't know how appropriate that was and so I felt guilty as I did it and didn't take too many. If you thought coffin caskets were expensive, you should see these miniature houses that people buy for their ancestors! It honestly looked like a mini village. From the path I could also see what looked like another temple or shrine, but when I went up closer to it I saw that the road that I believe led to it was long, windy, and up a steep mountain. I decided not to try to bike up there. One, I was tired from my run and two previous excursions, and two there was no guarantee that the long windy hilly road actually did take me where I wanted to go.
Exploring really didn't take all that long and I was back before Kaylene and Natalie went
down to teach at 9am. I had planned on only tiding up my room just a little bit and using my day for more adventuring. But, I opened the fridge and remembered how that desperately needed to be cleaned out. There was food in there that I'm positive was here before Nancy was (and she was here 6 months and has been gone for 1). So I cleaned out all the old food which is more involved then just throwing it away. Because of the intense recycling they do here I had to wash out all the nasty old sauce bottles and separate the trash from the recyclables. Once I took out the nasty food, I realized that I might as well wash out the actual fridge. So I took out all the shelves and cleaned them and wiped out the walls of the fridge. I finished that right before Natalie and Kaylene came up from teaching. That means that I spent an hour cleaning out the fridge. When Kaylene came upstairs she went into the fridge to get some water. I hear her gasp and shout, "Brooke, did you clean the fridge?" "Yes" "Wow, you're awesome!" I didn't need the compliment because hearing how excited she was to have a clean fridge made me happy. It was pretty disgusting and time consuming to clean it out, but I wanted it clean and so I did it. But then, it made it even more worth it to hear Kaylene's reaction.
After cleaning the fridge I cleaned my room and the hallway in my apartment (swept and mopped the tiny little area that leads from my bedroom to the bathroom). That only took 30-45 minutes.
On Monday I talked about water safety and decided that I wanted to go swimming today because it's my day off and I can. But today it wasn't as hot as it has been all week. I was debating whether to go or not, but I finally chose to go, I'd been looking forward to it for two days and after the bike ride there, I figured I'd be ready to jump into some water. I did a little more site seeing on my way over, but didn't find too much. When I got to the river, I had become heated and was ready for a dip in the river. Unfortunately the river had dried up tremendously and I couldn't swim in the spot I had wanted to. I didn't want to hike up very far and so the first place with water in it was where I decided to go. It wasn't very big and it wasn't very deep, but it was cold and relaxing. I was there alone and there wasn't much water, so I wasn't able to keep myself entertained for too long. I made it back before Natalie and Kaylene were done eating lunch (I was gone a little over an hour).
After showering and eating lunch I decided to work on my lesson plans a little bit. I had honestly planned on just getting some stuff done and leaving the rest for the weekend but I ended up planning all of next week (no real complaint there). Then I made the mistake of laying down for a nap. Like always, I set my alarm and then rest it once it went off. By time I actually woke up, I didn't have time to do much before it was time to tutor Kristy.
After tutoring I waited for Natalie to do her tutoring and we went out to dinner. I had been hesitant to take her to this one restaurant because it's very authentic Taiwanese food. I think it tastes great, but Natalie's not big on trying new things. She said that she was up for it tonight though and so I took her along. She really liked it, which surprised her too. She saw a store she hadn't explored yet so I made sure sh
e knew how to get back and then I went to pick up some fruit and then headed home to get ready for tutoring.
I just finished up with Dar-sen and then worked on evaluations and after blogging I plan on doing a crossword puzzle and going to bed.
Today Natalie did wake up and come running with me. But that's as far as it went... she came running with me, but less then a minute into the run she got distracted by a lizard. I didn't know how long she was going to spend hunting it down and so I kept running. I passed her on my way back, but she didn't turn around to run with me, she decided to finish the trail. Normally that would have been fine, but my bike lock fell out of a hole in my basket last night and so I had to lock my bike to hers. It was good having to wait for her though because I never take time to stretch on my own. So this forced me to get in a little bit of a stretch, which actually felt really good and was definitely needed.
After the run I went to go explore on the bike path that I found last Wednesday. I'm kind of glad that I have two cameras now. The one is the fancy one that I'm having fun playing wit
h and the old one I feel okay bringing in my bike when I go over bumps and I am okay with running with it and letting it get a little sweaty. I headed out in a different direction then I went last week and looked up and saw a big blue and white something off in the distance. I remember that Adam told Nancy and I about this large memorial in the mountains. I was interested in finding it, but we never had time to go search for it. I had forgotten all about it until this morning when I saw it up on the hill. I made my way over there. It was weird. It had military equipment set up on display around it so I wonder if it is some kind of war memorial. There were LOTS of stairs that had been covered by lots of spider webs, yick! I was a little bit hesitant at first because it was eerie that there was NO one there. But then I thought that it was good because if for some reason it was inappropriate to walk around in my running clothes and take pictures, there was no one there to tell me so and to stop me. I hiked up the stairs to the main hall but it was closed, so I really don't know what this place was. All I know is that is was beautiful.After checking out the memorial I decided to check out a cemetery that I had seen from the bike path. I snapped a couple of pictures, but really didn't know how appropriate that was and so I felt guilty as I did it and didn't take too many. If you thought coffin caskets were expensive, you should see these miniature houses that people buy for their ancestors! It honestly looked like a mini village. From the path I could also see what looked like another temple or shrine, but when I went up closer to it I saw that the road that I believe led to it was long, windy, and up a steep mountain. I decided not to try to bike up there. One, I was tired from my run and two previous excursions, and two there was no guarantee that the long windy hilly road actually did take me where I wanted to go.
Exploring really didn't take all that long and I was back before Kaylene and Natalie went
down to teach at 9am. I had planned on only tiding up my room just a little bit and using my day for more adventuring. But, I opened the fridge and remembered how that desperately needed to be cleaned out. There was food in there that I'm positive was here before Nancy was (and she was here 6 months and has been gone for 1). So I cleaned out all the old food which is more involved then just throwing it away. Because of the intense recycling they do here I had to wash out all the nasty old sauce bottles and separate the trash from the recyclables. Once I took out the nasty food, I realized that I might as well wash out the actual fridge. So I took out all the shelves and cleaned them and wiped out the walls of the fridge. I finished that right before Natalie and Kaylene came up from teaching. That means that I spent an hour cleaning out the fridge. When Kaylene came upstairs she went into the fridge to get some water. I hear her gasp and shout, "Brooke, did you clean the fridge?" "Yes" "Wow, you're awesome!" I didn't need the compliment because hearing how excited she was to have a clean fridge made me happy. It was pretty disgusting and time consuming to clean it out, but I wanted it clean and so I did it. But then, it made it even more worth it to hear Kaylene's reaction.After cleaning the fridge I cleaned my room and the hallway in my apartment (swept and mopped the tiny little area that leads from my bedroom to the bathroom). That only took 30-45 minutes.
On Monday I talked about water safety and decided that I wanted to go swimming today because it's my day off and I can. But today it wasn't as hot as it has been all week. I was debating whether to go or not, but I finally chose to go, I'd been looking forward to it for two days and after the bike ride there, I figured I'd be ready to jump into some water. I did a little more site seeing on my way over, but didn't find too much. When I got to the river, I had become heated and was ready for a dip in the river. Unfortunately the river had dried up tremendously and I couldn't swim in the spot I had wanted to. I didn't want to hike up very far and so the first place with water in it was where I decided to go. It wasn't very big and it wasn't very deep, but it was cold and relaxing. I was there alone and there wasn't much water, so I wasn't able to keep myself entertained for too long. I made it back before Natalie and Kaylene were done eating lunch (I was gone a little over an hour).
After showering and eating lunch I decided to work on my lesson plans a little bit. I had honestly planned on just getting some stuff done and leaving the rest for the weekend but I ended up planning all of next week (no real complaint there). Then I made the mistake of laying down for a nap. Like always, I set my alarm and then rest it once it went off. By time I actually woke up, I didn't have time to do much before it was time to tutor Kristy.
After tutoring I waited for Natalie to do her tutoring and we went out to dinner. I had been hesitant to take her to this one restaurant because it's very authentic Taiwanese food. I think it tastes great, but Natalie's not big on trying new things. She said that she was up for it tonight though and so I took her along. She really liked it, which surprised her too. She saw a store she hadn't explored yet so I made sure sh
e knew how to get back and then I went to pick up some fruit and then headed home to get ready for tutoring.I just finished up with Dar-sen and then worked on evaluations and after blogging I plan on doing a crossword puzzle and going to bed.
1 comment:
Wow, how great is it to be you?!!!!!
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