A VERY BIG LUNCH!

So...today we were invited to a "barbecue" lunch with our boss, his family and the secretaries of our school.  Why did I put the word "barbecue in quotes?  Well you will soon fine out.  This wasn't like any barbecue that I had ever been to.  First of all, we got to the location and we were just wearing jeans and a Tshirt.  But then we see all of these people and they are all in suits and ties...we felt drastically under-dressed.  Oh well...there was really nothing we could do about it now.  Then we got to our eating room.  There were nice table cloths on the tables and covers over the chairs.  Definitely fancier than I had anticipated.  Then...the "barbecue" started....I will I had kept a record of everything I ate...but I didn't.  I'm pretty sure there were about 10 different courses throughout this meal.  it started with some edamame and raw fish....and the very last dish were five little heart-shaped ice cream bars for dessert.  

What exactly did I eat?  Well....I tried raw fish, edamame, dumpling soup (I think that's what it was anyways), lobster, fried crab (shell and all), fish, pineapple, scallops, pork chops, more soup, fried rice, a spring roll, and pound cake and ice cream bars for dessert.  It was so much food!  Luckily I wasn't being too adventurous....I didn't try too much so I wasn't as full as I probably could have been.  I really enjoyed the lobster and the fish.  The pork chop was good too.  And of course...the ice cream bars were yummy too!  :)

As we were sitting at the table we would get random groups of people from other tables that would come to us and wish us a Happy New Year or Xin Nian Kuai Le.  Yes....I did learn how to say that in Chinese and we did go around to the tables and wish them a happy new year as well.  The really unfortunately thing about having to do this is that every time a group came around we would have to do a toast which meant that we would have to hold up our glasses and drink our orange juice.  Normally this wouldn't be a problem.  However, this "Minute Maid" orange juice was NOT "Minute Maid" orange juice.  It was basically orange pulp with a little bit of orange flavored water in it.  Oh well...Although it was different than what I am used to I really did enjoy myself.

all of the teachers before lunch started!  We had no idea what we were about to experience!  But it was great!  :)

 Our first course----I'm not exactly sure what is on this platter...I know there is raw fish on there...I tried that (too squishy for me) and there are squid eggs (or something like that) on there...other than that...I'm not sure.

Yes...that is me eating with chopsticks.  BE PROUD OF ME!  :)

Those are bowls of fried crab.  They are fried in their shells and you are supposed to eat everything...including their shells...I didn't get very far on this dish...I did get some of the meat out of it but I couldn't make myself eat the shell.

This is a picture of the grab close up.

Then....we got a plate of scallions and some vegetables that we had to cook in the middle of our table.  Luckily we had someone at our table that knew what she was doing.  :)

Yes...I am eating a scallion.  Actually this was probably one of my favorite things to eat.

My lobster claw.  It was very difficult to get the meat out using my chopsticks so I had to resort to using my hands instead.

LOBSTER!  Definitely wasn't expecting this to be one of the dishes that they had for us.

I got a perfect piece of meat out of my lobster...you can't really see it there but that is what I am holding.

This was one of the last dishes...soup.  I didn't eat any of this because by this time I was so full that I needed to hold back.

Dessert---round 1.  Pound cake (or something like it).  It was really good.  Those little containers on the sides of the pound cake are passion fruit flavored jellies.

Lastly, we got our ice cream.  Probably my favorite of all of them.  YUM!  As we were walking back to our room from wishing others a happy new year Angelica, our boss' daughter put one of these in each of our mouths.  Literally fed them to us.  :)  Little did we know...there would be 5 ice creams waiting for us at our table.  Oh well...I at them all anyways.

This is a group of the secretaries and some of the English teachers that were at the lunch.

The English teachers with Peggy. :)

The English teachers with Charlene (I'm not sure if I spelled her name right...).

It was definitely a good day!  Now to pack for Taipei!  :)

Just another Sunday afternoon

Well...I guess today wasn't just any old Sunday afternoon.  Today was also Chinese New Year.  Since it was Chinese New Year, church started a little earlier.  It started at 9:00 instead of 9:30.  That meant we had to leave our house by 7:45 or so...we made it to church in record time....we got to church by 8:30.  Usually it takes a lot longer than that.  We were combined with a Chinese ward.  It was so interesting to hear the Sacrament blessed in Chinese and prayers said in Chinese.  The speakers were from our branch but their talks were also translated into Chinese.  It was a pretty cool experience.  Then, instead of having two more hours after Sacrament Meeting, we only had one hour.  We did Sunday School with all of the Primary kids combined...that came to a total of 4 Primary children.  WOW!  Then, Tricia, Erin and I decided to go on a picnic at a park on the way home from church.  It was a pretty cool little park.  I enjoyed myself.  We ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and flew kites around....I fail at flying kites by the way.  We also walked around the park for a little while and then we went home.  It was a pretty successful Sunday afternoon.  :)

Erin trying to figure out her kite.

We couldn't find one of the sticks for the kite so we found a stick and I cut it down so it would fit.  We later found the stick laying on the ground at the bus stop...oops.

I finished making my stick!

We were both so good at flying kites!

I just thought this was a really cool picture.  These flowers were in the pond.  Look closely and you will see a spider!  No I did not get close enough to take this picture...I stole it from Erin.

All three of us with our kites!...Erin, Me, and Tricia

Apparently you are supposed to take off your shoes and walk along this path.  It relieves stress...I just think it is painful.

Probably one of my favorite pictures of the day...I am really into flying my kite.  Good news...I did end up flying it for a minute at least.  :)

What do you do on Chinese New Year's Eve in Taiwan?

So...what to do on Chinese New Year's Eve?  Well...we went hiking up a mountain.  Apparently there are usually really big spiders on this trail.  Did we see any?  Nope not really!  We did, however, get our exercise in.  We started out on our bikes.  Then, as soon as we hit the first hill of the mountain I couldn't take it anymore.  Yes...I did get off and start walking my bike up the road instead of riding it.  I know I'm a wimp.  :) Oh well.  Then, we got to the trail head.  We saw one pretty big spider at the beginning of the hike but that is the only one we saw for the entire hike.  I couldn't even get a good picture of it because it was too far away.  :( 

This is my attempt at getting a picture of the spider...at least I think it is.  You can't really see anything in this picture.  If you look at the upper, left-hand side you might be able to see it.

This is me on the trail.  Pretty exciting huh?

Since it was Chinese New Year's Eve, we saw all of these lanterns as we were walking up and riding down the mountain.

All three of us together.  We wanted to take these pictures fast because we heard dogs barking viciously and we were a little nervous about that.  :)

The best part of the hike was riding our bikes DOWN the mountains!  So much easier than riding up the mountain!  Then, of course, we had to stop at the grocery store.  We were a little nervous that they would be closed for part of next week (because of the holiday) so we thought we should stock up on some things.

Then...the best part of my day was Les Mis that night!  SO EXCITING!  The best part about the movie theaters here is that you can bring in your own food.  They don't care!  So...I stopped at McDonalds before the movie and grabbed dinner to eat while we were in the movie.  I wish theater in American would allow that.  The worst part about the movie theater that we went to is that it was FREEZING COLD and we were right underneath the air vent.  And no....we couldn't change seats because this theater assigns you seats.  Another weird things about the movie here was that the screen was not the same size as in America or something because the camera would randomly cut off the characters head and I'm pretty sure it wasn't like that when I watched the movie in America.  Oh well...once I got past those two things I really did LOVE the movie and I think it was even better the second time around.  

A McDonalds Fiasco....and some other stuff :)

Yesterday my roommates and I walked to the Sogo in downtown Fengyuan.  Sogo is the department store (or mall) that they have here.  First we went to a store where we found a ton of cool Chinese New Year cards!  Of course we bought a few.  :)  Then I wanted to find this card game at the Sogo.  Luckily I found it!  The bookstore where we found the cards was right next to a McDonalds.  I decided that I wanted to get some fries since we were there.  So...I attempted to order.  It didn't go as planned though.  The language barrier is tough sometimes.  When I got to the counter I pointed to the fries on the menu, I showed her a number one on my fingers and then I said "big" and motioned with me hands to indicate "big".  Then, she started to say things in Chinese that I didn't understand.  She pointed behind her (the cooking area) and held up 2 fingers.  I thought she was saying there was a 12 minute wait or something like that.  Then....I had to pay. That was a lot more expensive than I was expecting.  I wasn't exactly sure what I had ordered.  Then, they brought out my fries and.....2 ice cream cones??  WHAT?!?  That doesn't make any sense.  I said nothing to make her think that I wanted ice cream cones.  Oh well.  The ice cream cones here are only 15 NT which is about 50 cents.  Luckily I was with my roommates.  They helped me eat the fries and the ice cream cones.  I still have no idea how she got ice cream cone out of the all the gesturing I was doing.  The people here are so patient and willing to help I'm sure she was just trying to help and I appreciate her for that.  Plus...it makes for a good story right?

In other news....I went to church today and at the end of our meetings the branch president came in and asked to talk to me.  I already have a calling so I was thinking he was going to ask me to give a talk.  However...he took me all the way to his office.  Usually you don't do that for a talk.  So...I was thinking I was getting a new calling which made me a little sad.  I really like my current calling.  Both of these assumptions were wrong however.  I now have TWO callings.  I am still the primary music person and now I am also the branch choir director.  WHAT?!?  Whoever told them that I know how to sing was very mistaken.  Oh well.  I'm sure it will be great and I'm looking forward to this new opportunity and experience.   I hope all is well in your neck of the woods.  :)

What a great day!

Today the school had a field trip to a barbecue.  All of the students were invited to attend.  However, some parents decided that their time would be better suited in class.  So....due to this fact...I only had one student in my basic reading class today....ONE!  Oh well.  I was a little worried at first.  She is the brightest student in my class...being alone with her for three hours would be interesting.   I figured we would fly through all of our coursework.  And we did fly through our course work.  For our break time we went outside for a little while and played tag.  That was pretty fun.  Then, after break, Sunny brought her kids into my class and we played Guess Who and Uno.  She only had two kids so we thought it would be more fun to combine rather than just have one person in my class and two in hers.  It was so much fun!  I really enjoyed myself!  It was so nice only having to worry about one, well-behaved child rather than 9 crazy ones!  It was honestly the most fun I have had with any of my kids in a long time.  It was great!

Off to Taipei

Saturday January 26, 2013 was quite a busy day.  I woke up at 8:00 to prepare to teach my 4th graders.  I have really struggled with getting through to them.  They are crazy and sometimes loud and disrespectful.  When I was teaching them on Thursday I noticed that they really had no concept of the word respect so we talked about it.  Then, on Saturday, we created a respect comic strip.  I hope that our various activities about respect help my students begin to understand exactly what respect is.  My class was over at 11:00.  I had to run upstairs to quickly get ready to go to Taipei.  We went on a branch temple trip today.  The bus left from Fengyuan at 11:30 in the morning.  The bus ride was about 3 hours long.  While we were on the bus I listened to music and we watch a movie...Johnny Lingo.  About halfway through our trip we stopped at a rest stop.  I got a corn dog, hash browns and strawberry ice cream.  It tasted different than those things would in america but it was still good.  

Then, we finally pulled into Taipei.  As we were driving into the city I could see Taipei 101.  It was so cool!  101 is the second tallest building in the world.  It was pretty cool.  The temple was beautiful!  I loved seeing a new temple and getting to go inside.  This really made me realize that the gospel is true no matter where you are.  :)  

Then, when we were done inside the temple, Calli, Sunny and I walked to a nearby memorial.  It was for a man named Chiang Kai-shek.  I am not a history person so I'm not exactly sure what he did....all I know is that it had to do with the government in Taiwan and the government in China but that's all I got for ya.  I really enjoyed it anyways.

As we were walking to the memorial we saw this sign.  Some of the signs just make me laugh.  Beware of falling coconut branches??.....ok....... :)  I will try to take pictures of more of the interesting signs that I see....they are everywhere.  :)

Then, after we went to the memorial we got back on the bus and we went to Taipei 101 to get dinner.  As I said earlier, Taipei 101 is the second tallest building in the world.  It was cool to go inside.  The first few floors has a mall and a food court.  I think the rest of it are businesses.  You can pay to go all the way to the top of the building but I didn't feel like spending that kind of money yesterday...

this is a picture that I took from the ground as I looked up at the building.  Cool huh?

For dinner I got KFC....I know...really Taiwanese.  :)  The thing that I got off of the menu wasn't the same as in america though.  I got a chicken wrap.  It had chicken, Doritos, and salsa wrapped in a tortilla.  It was surprisingly good.  I also got fries, a biscuit (which is different than in the states) and a Pepsi.  It was a good dinner!  

Then, after we were done with our food, we boarded the bus and headed back to Fengyuan.  I slept for almost the entire bus ride.  I was so tired.  The downside of sleeping for three hours on the bus was that I couldn't fall asleep that night...Oh well.  It was still a really good day!

Our Saturday Adventure

I had a pretty fun Saturday!  I really enjoyed myself.  It started pretty early...I had to teach 4th grade from 9 to 11 in the morning.  Only 2 of my students came...that was pretty fun.  :)  They have started their winter break so I'm hoping my classes will be a little more sparse....I'm not sure if they really will be though.  :)  Then I did some lesson planning for a couple hours.  After I was done with that we decided to go the pool.  Yes they have a pool here in Taiwan.  It was the coolest pool I have ever seen!  There are two big pools for lap swimming.  There is also a water slide but it was off while we were there.  The best part was the spa part.  There are 3 or 4 hot tubs and then, in the main pool part, there are all of these jets and spa stations.  Depending on which station you choose, the jets will shoot you in a different place on your body.  My favorite one was this one where you laid down and you were surrounded by bubbles.  My least favorite one was a room that you stood in and the water shot at you from every direction but the water was....COLD!!  I couldn't handle it!  I had a really good time.

and yes....they do require you to wear swim caps.  That was lots of fun.  :)

After swimming we rode our bikes back to our apartment and we got ready to go out to dinner.  Our plan was to go to a burger place in Taichung called Chubby's (or however you spell it)...if you have ever watched Boy Meets World this will sound familiar to you.  :)  We got really lucky with our train and bus tickets.  We really wanted to catch the bus that was at 17:40...I think.  That only gave us 13 minutes to walk to the bus station, get our ticket and get to the platform.  We booked it from our apartment, down the three flights of stairs, down the streets, up the stairs, over the train tracks, down the stairs and down the street to the train station in record time.  We also bought our tickets and got to the platform in about 13 minutes.  The second we got down the stairs we saw the train coming in.  PERFECT TIMING!  Then, when we got to Taichung we asked what bus we needed to take to get to the restaurant stop.  She said that we wanted bus 83 or 86 across the street.  We crossed that street and we immediately saw and 83 and flagged it down.  A strange thing here in Taiwan is that the buses don't stop at every stop.  You have to flag it down and hope that they see you.  We flagged it down and we got on just in time.  We didn't have to wait for transportation at all.  Then, our luck changed.  We got to the restaurant and they were closed.  :(  But no worries....we found a different hamburger place down the street from Chubby's.  It was really good!  I enjoyed myself.  The hamburgers were HUGE but still good.  We also got Coke with our meal along with fries and a salad.  SO GOOD!  I was the closest thing that I have had to American food since I have been here.  

Then we stopped at the big department store (mall) in Taichung.  It is called Sogo.  This department store is 18 floors high.  It's so strange.  I thought it would be a bunch of different stores like a mall is in america....Nope.  It wasn't like that.  It was separated by sections instead....the book section...the toy section...the baby section...etc.  I guess that is almost like stores but it was definitely different than what I was used to.  Then, after our shopping experience we decided to head home.  All in all...it was a pretty good day.