Temple/Taipei Trip

Today was our ward temple and Costco trip. We all boarded a bus and headed out for the 2 ½ bus hour ride to Taipei. The temple in Taipei is very beautiful. The outside looks like a small version of the Dallas Temple with a blue roof. The inside was beautiful with unique wood, arts, and pots to Taiwan.
After the temple we headed to Costco to stock up on anything American. I bought a block of cheese, chips, and salsa to satisfy my desire to for American food. Other people went insane. I have never seen so many happy people to be at a Costco.
Everyone else boarded the bus and headed back to Feng Yuan. Julie and I headed to stay with my Uncle Sean and Aunt Wanda who are teaching English in Taipei. They have been here for over a year now and it has been several years since I have seen them. I was also finally able to meet my cousin Ian (3 years old) and Leah (7 months). We enjoyed celebrating Ian’s birthday and had a wonderful weekend with my family.

Taichung Exploration

We had a ward activity tonight at the church. Because of this we decided to make a day out of exploring Taichung. We began by enjoyed lunch at TGI Fridays. My favorite part was the outfits that the servers wear. It was also nice to eat some Mexican food. After this we decided to try and find the Big Buddha. People in Taiwan are very kind. We asked a girl who spoke English to help us. She pointed us in the right direction and we continued on the journey. About a block later she waved us down in her car with her father to give us better directions.
At the Big Buddha we ran into a group of Japanese tourist who had also come to see it. They were very fascinated by us and kept taking pictures of us and with us. We also found them very entertaining.
That night we enjoyed getting to know the members of the ward better by playing games. My favorite game was chopstick relay. We passed beads using chopsticks. I have gotten very good at my chopstick skills and have even been complemented by some off the locals on my skills.

Bike, Food, and Movies

I think the thing I love the most so far about being in Taiwan is riding my bike. There is nothing like the wind blowing in you face as you peddle to the grocery store. It is very
hot and humid her. Even worse than Texas. With the heat beating down it is
nice to feel a breeze.

Trying the food has also been fun. Buying groceries to make a meal is expensive. Meat is not very popular and expensive. Milk taste weird and cost about $3-$4. Because of this we usually by a meal from a stand. I spent 60-30nt. About $1 or $2 on a meal. They are usually very tasty and make great leftovers. Since it is inexpensive I enjoy trying new dishes. Tonight I tried a new dessert. It was shaved ice with coconut milk and fresh mangos!!!! I think fruit is the second reason I love being here. You can buy fresh mangos, pineapple, guava, dragonfruit, and bananas for really cheap. I love it. I have also tried grilled squid. A little chewing, yet enjoyable.

Watching movies is fun here. It cost about $7.50 to watch a movie. When
you buy your ticket you get an assign seat. Most movies are viewed in English with Chinese subtitles. They waste no time at the movies. When a movie is over they do not roll credits instead they shew everyone out so they can sweep for about 5 mins.. When you see the brooms leave you have about 2 min. to get in and get to your seat before the next movie starts. If you are feeling hungry you do not have to sneak food into the movies. McDonalds is right across the street, so grab a burger and fries and head into the movies.

So far I have seen Superman Returns and Pirates. When we went and saw Pirates the movie stopped at one of the most intense parts. People started leaving. We decided to wait until someone came and told us to leave. Luckily it started again.

4th of July

For the 4th of July we decided to do anything
that seemed American. Pizza was the most American thing we could think of. We were able to take a break from planning and went out for pizza. The Taiwanese enjoy random vegetables on everything. I order a Hawaiian pizza and it came with corn. This was surprisingly good. I might make this a practice when I get home.
The fourth of July might not be a holiday in Taiwan, but the ward sure knows how to have a party. We went to the most amazing park just down from our house called Asia Go Park. Here we enjoyed hot dogs and watermelon. The weird thing is the Taiwanese make all their bread sweet. You are biting into a juicy hotdog and then you taste sweet bread.

It would not have been Fourth of July without a
water fight. I did an amazing job of staying dry until right before I left a my friend Julie wanted to take a picture of us with watermelon. As we were doing this Whitni nailed us with a bucket of water. It was funny and created an awesome picture. Happy Fourth of July.

First Day. First impessions.

Today our day began about 6:00am. This was really early for me. We are also not allowed to go to sleep tonight until 9:00pm tonight and no nap. This is to help with the jet lag. I do not feel the side affect from jet lag yet, but we will see what happens. We had a tour of the school. If there is ever an emergency and we are unable to use the stairs we will be repelling out the window. Apparently sometime during the semester the fireman will be coming to help us practice this.
The most important part of the tour was how to properly sort the trash. As Taiwan is a small country with tons of people and very limited space, recycling is important to help keep it beautiful. If you mess up on the recycling process you will be fined for not recycling correctly. This work because instead of setting you trash in a trash can at around 3:00pm you hear a truck that sounds like the ice cream man. It is the trash people and you race outside giving one truck trash and the other recycling.
My first thoughts of Taiwan is that it has an interesting smell. It smells like fish and something else mixed together. The landscape is hills with Monasteries or cities with all the buildings pushed together so tight you start to feel claustrophobic. There is also a lot of smug. Sometimes when I breathe I feel as though I have sucked a bunch of junk that is sticking to my lungs. I think this explains why I see people wearing mask on their face all the time. The humidity is horrible here. It is about 82 degree, with 60 percent humidity. Yes, it is gross ans sticky.

I have arrived!!!!

It is crazy to think that I am in Taiwan! Many would think that a thirteen hour flight is very long and dreadful experience. However it was not as bad as I had expected. Each seat was individual equipped with its own headset and TV. You are able to make movie selections, listen to a variety of music, and play games. My favorite game was called world traveler. In this game you work on your basic language skills. On the plane I also made a friend. He is from Taipei, but had been attending school at UCLA. Upon arriving at the Airport we found all our luggage, but the person who was suppose to meet us was not there. Luckily they had left a message and we bought bus ticket to continue our journey down to Taichung were we would head towards Fang Yuan.

This was the best 1 1/2 bus ride of my life. We each had our own huge comfortable leather chair to stretch out in. I slept the whole time. Upon arriving at Berhan (the school we are teaching out) we had to drag our luggage up 4 flights of stairs. The first three floors are the school and the 4th floor is our living area. There will be a lot of walking up the stairs. I am in a room with 4 other girls. This might sound crowded, but the room is really big with plenty of person space for everyone. With the late hour it was off to bed with the excitement of getting up early to start training