Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Boys will be boys, even in Taiwan

Today at break time, my 13 year old boys decided to build a fort with their desks. Me being the cool teacher that I am, had no problem letting them do this. The result was this: Yes, this is a warlike barricade. I decided to go with the flow and continue class with them just sitting in their little "fort" when to my surprise as I'm writing sentences on the board, I see an array of glue sticks, pens, and ribbons being thrown in my direction. "Grenades!" they said much to my surprise. Needless to say, instead of doing our world activity today in class, we played an awesome game of war. Them against me. I lost. This is a picture of Rick - the instigatorThey used their chairs to represent some sort of bazooka like guns. It was really funny because they moved them all in synchronized motions.
I love these guys and realize now more the ever that no matter where you go, boys will be boys!

Saturday, April 25, 2009

I love to see the temple

I'm so happy for temples and the gospel. When everything seems to fall apart, Heavenly Father doesn't let us down.

I went to the temple with some of the teachers and friends from Taiwan. On the way to the temple, I met a friend named Debbie (she is Taiwanese) on the bus and spoke with her. She asked what we were doing and I told her we were going to the temple in Taipei. We talked about a lot of things, but I was able to tell her a little bit about the church and handed her a pass along card and some information about the gospel and she read it for a good long time on the bus. I don't know if much will come from it, but if anything I enjoyed talking to her because she was a super nice girl. This was my first experience where I told somebody about the gospel for the first time and gave them information about it. It was pretty cool.

Here is a picture of me and some of my temple trip buddies:

From left to right is Fenny, Jeana, Stephanie, and me.

Another really exciting thing happened to me while I was at the temple. As we walked in, the temple president and his wife were at the front desk. I happened to talk to them at stake conference the weekend before when everybody was outside with Sister Bednar and Sister Hurr. Well, when I saw them at the front desk, I said hi to the temple presidents wife and she said "I remember you" and it was fun to see them both again. They are from the United States and they just seem like a really sweet, but strong couple. The exciting part is that as we were doing baptisms, the temple president came downstairs and sat in on the confirmations. When it came to be my turn, he asked how to say my name and he confirmed me. It was actually a really special experience and I feel very blessed. I'm happy that I went to the temple. In a world where everything else might be confusing, the one thing that holds true is the gospel. I love Taiwan.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Weekend Adventures

Last weekend, I saw some wild monkeys at Monkey Mountain, then leaving immediately from Eurshway we went to Taichung where we were blessed to see the adult session of Saturday Stake Conference with Elder Bednar. Yes, that is right I saw monkeys then an apostle. I feel like one lucky girl. Here are some pics from the weekend:

After Sundays session of Stake Conference, everybody went outside of the church building to talk. Elder Bednar was in the church having meetings, but Sister Bednar and the mission presidents wife Sister Hurr were outside talking to the people. Surprisingly enough, not that many people were in attendance for Stake Conference with an apostle. I mean, the chapel was full and there were seats in the back, but it wasn't like Utah where there is a stadium or something reserved. Anyway, after the meeting I went outside and Sister Bednar and Sister Hurr actually came up to us and our group and sister Bednar wondered why there were so many of us in the stake. It was really fun to talk to her about things like teaching, how I went to BYU-I, how I was at a lunchin with her and Elder Bednar when the dedicated the Ricks building at BYU-I. The women of the church are amazing people. Sister Hurr and Sister Bednar wanted to take a picture with the "beautiful girls from the choir" and when Sister Hurr asked if I would be in a picture with them, I couldn't object. It was a really amazing experience. I feel very blessed.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Surfer Girl

I'm officially a surfer!!! Well, as in that I went out into the ocean with a surfboard. Not everybody stands up on their first try, right? Anyway, here are some pictures showing off my mad skills.

Dane and I waxing up the boards
Going down to the ocean
Getting ready to ride some waves
Here we are, the wave riders mastering the ocean. Calibunga Dude.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

The Vacation of My Life

One could not ask for anything better then 4 days away from work along with the added benefit of 2 good friends, a beautiful island, snorkeling, coconut chicken curry, surfing, flying fish, etc.

However first thing first, the squatter - I told myself that the first time I would blog about the squatters here would be the first time I had to use one. Yes, the time has come that I have officially been introduced into the world of squatting. This lucky experience came to me when I was forced to ride on a train for 6 hours thus forcing me to make friends with this new friend, my little Silver Jon. Here it is:



You can only try to think about how successful my first time using a squatter was on a moving train... Green Island was very beautiful. As you can tell, the name is accurate to how it is - green! My favorite part about this island was the snorkeling. I quickly feel in LOVE with this new diving experience of looking at clear water and feeding tropical fish bread right out of your hand. I still feel excited when I think about feeding the fish.



Fry the cloves - it sounds friendly, but don't be deceived. We decided to go to a restaurant and Dane ordered shark, Arwyn ordered turtle, so I played it on the safe side and ordered cloves. Sounds like some sort of safe vegetable like thing right? WRONG!



Cloves apparently are lots of little tiny fried fish. I was forced into eating a bite and it came out as quickly as it went in. Thank goodness for Dane who saved me from this nasty meal. Here is a video of him eating fry the cloves:



Dane, if you happen to read this, I think you once again with all of my heart!

Ahh, pretty Taiwan:



Wednesday, April 1, 2009

The Ocean

Well, I am off for another adventure and heading to a magical place called Green Island where I will be able to snorkel, lay on the beach, visit 1 of 3 ocean hot springs, and eat cheap food for 3 days and then off to Kenting to surf. However, before I go on the vacation of my dreams, I thought I would share with you some pictures from my first trip to the ocean, just last week. It wasn't the pretty tropical sea that I will be going to, but at least with these pictures, you can get the gist of it.

Here I am on the scooter. It was a 2 hour drive there (because we had no clue how to get there, and it was sort of far). Don't worry Mom, I didn't die while driving.



Ah the ocean, my ocean



Another scooter shot of me with train tracks in the background.



This is a Taiwanese graveyard that we saw on the way to the ocean. Death is a scary thing here - can you tell why?