Green Island

Okay- I guess it's finally time to bite the bullet and write my last blog about Taiwan. I would love to keep blogging after this but since my life has become drastically dull here in America, there's not much to blog about except for tedious job hunting.

ANYWAY, here it is...the final days of my fabulous, fun-filled adventures in Asia!

June 23rd: We're finally all packed up and ready to leave. I stocked up on motion sickness medication because I knew the ferry to Green Island was going to be rough. Jessica and I had a little too much fun making commercials for the little box of pills I bought. Bomit...don't vomit!

It took me several tries to get through the commercial...on the last take you can see the mascara streaks running down my face from laughing so hard. Yeah, I'm a dork...

We started our trip with dinner at the toilet restaurant. They serve your food in little toilets, bathtubs, and sinks...lovely.

Then we went shopping... you know how sometimes you get on an elevator and forget to hit a floor...






We had booked our trip with this high-strung South African guy named Eddie who took us to the bus stop and lectured us on sunscreen and driving safely on our scooters- "I don't want to get a call from the clinic- there's only one doctor on the island and he's always drunk." Remember Eddie's advice...it'll come up later in this blog.

It was kind of a rough night...the all-night bus had no air-conditioning, but we finally reached our destination the next morning. Most of us took a motion-sickness pill and we boarded the ferry. Not long after the ferry pulled out, I could hear people all around me retching. The boat was equipped with plenty of plastic barf bags and I soon joined my co-passengers in emptying the contents of my stomach. The Bomit medication definitely did not work. I got up and a steward wearing rubber gloves was ready and waiting to take my bag from me. He gave me two more empty bags and I headed outside for some fresh air where Tammy and Lauren were looking green and leaning over the railing. Joseph was gloating on how unaffected he was by the non-stop rocking motion of the waves. I got my revenge on him when I tossed my cookies over the railing and missed. Joseph accidentally put his hand on the railing and got a lovely surprise. Oops. Too much information? Here's the evidence on my shirt...disgusting...

If you ever get a chance to read the Lonely Planet Travel Guide for Taiwan, look up what it says about the "Vomit Barge". I'm lucky I survived.

We arrived at the island, rented scooters, and spent the day on the beach. That night, we ate dinner at a Taiwanese Barbecue...

We sang karoake and got a standing ovation from the Taiwanese tourists there.

We came home and found this gianormous spider in our bathroom...

Then, we gave Joseph some dreads...

He had some bad hair and a headache the next morning.

Green Island was amazing!!! We rode our scooters around the small island, swam and played on the beach, snorkeled, sat under the stars in the natural hot springs, and laughed our guts out in the hotel every night.

Then, tragedy struck! On our third day in paradise...while riding our scooters along the beautiful coastal road, I wrecked my scooter into a wall. These are the sunglasses I was wearing when my head hit the pavement.

I got eight stitches above my right eye and broke my left wrist.

It turns out that the only doctor on the island isn't always drunk- Here he is putting a cast on my broken arm.

Poor Jessica was on the back of the scooter and the pavement tore up her leg and foot. I'll forever be sorry for putting her through all that...she's one tough cookie.




With only one functioning arm...I was pretty useless, but I had a ton of help from all my personal assistants. I couldn't reach my head to do my hair and make up so from here on out... all the pictures of me are scary... Humidity is not my friend. I felt like Monica on that episode of Friends when her hair frizzes out into an enormous afro. Sad.

Try this at home... bend perpendicular to the wall, lift the chair, and try to stand up. Guys' center of gravity isn't in their hips so they can't stand up, but girls can...

That's it for now...There's lots more, so stay tuned for the second half of our trip to Thailand...elephants, kayaking, wild monkeys, hill tribe villages, and snorkeling...all with a broken arm!

Family

I've tried to put a finger on why the last six months was so great. I think what I'll miss most about Taiwan is:


Laura's calm and easy-going personality




Tammy's energy and excitement for life




Whitney's cute laugh and genuine interest in whoever she's talking to



Yelling at Steve for driving me crazy and then laughing with Steve for driving me crazy






Laughing my guts out with Jessica and her ability to make anything out of nothing



Listening to Joseph's music and reading anything he writes




Feeling Mary's honest expressions of love and concern for all of us




Somehow the stars aligned just right to put together a group of people that became like a second family to me. I miss being able to walk into any room and find someone to talk, laugh, and play with. Taiwan could have been just another adventure, but living with such a great combination of fun and amazing people was truly a miracle. They let me into their lives and wormed their way into my heart and I couldn't help but get really attached. I will miss being able to talk to, learn from, and see them everyday. It's hard saying good-bye to a way of life as a family especially when there's more than one family you're losing.

Graduation

It's all over... we survived.... Saturday was graduation for the basic reading and 6th grade classes. All of these pictures are courtesy of Steve or Mary since I don't have a camera anymore.

The kids performed both Chinese and English musical numbers for graduation. This dragon dance was awesome.









These are our youngest kindergartners Oscar, Dream, Yvonne, and Sky. They are so cute- we can't get enough of them. Yvonne can't stop giggling whenever she sees Joseph and Steve...it's hilarious.






















We love our kindergartners...
















Here's Stanley as the cutest bunny rabbit I've ever seen. He still likes to tell me, "I don't want sit by you!"




These are Joseph and Laura's cute kindergarten basic readers. The amazing Mr. Joseph actually choreographed most of the song and the kids love it. It's fun to watch how much they get into the song.



We took this picture of my basic reading class just before we realized they were performing next and no one had their dwarf costumes on. Somehow we got everyone dressed and made it just in time!




They sang and danced to Whistle While You Work with brooms and mops. This is Sunny in her dwarf costume.



Here's my class waiting to get their diplomas.



The last number was put on by all of the teachers...but we don't have any pictures of it. We acted out the song, The Lion Sleeps Tonight and Steve was the Lion. The kids loved it.



I don't think I've ever seen Chris (a student in my Basic Reading class) display very much emotion... but after graduation he was really crying. The thought crossed my mind that maybe he got in trouble and was actually crying over some corporal punishment inflicted on him- but his parents said he was really sad and asked me to take a picture with him. It just amazed me that he was this distraught over school ending...wow...who knew?


This is Peggy- another one of my students who graduated on Saturday.









There is a wall at Berhan that has the pictures of each group of teachers that have come here. This is the picture that will be posted on that wall at Berhan to be viewed for years to come by future Berhan teachers.




After graduation, we all went out to eat a huge Taiwanese meal courtesy of Frances and Gerald (the owners of the school).

This is Fennie- one of the new secretaries this semester. We loved getting to know her and hate saying goodbye. She's a lot of fun.



Gloria and Peggy are two more secretaries who work at our school. The amazing Gloria took time out of her busy schedule to show us how to make dumplings...they were sooooo good! She is amazing!!!




We've had a fun weekend reminiscing, packing, having a huge potluck with whatever was left of the food in the kitchen, and playing murder in the dark on the top floors of our building. Tomorrow we're off on our ten day trip around Taiwan and then it's another ten days in Thailand. I'll be home July 15th. This six months went by so fast...I just hope I survive the separation from this awesome family we've become. We've had way too much fun here... the next 3 weeks are going to be awesome...so long as we don't get rained out...typhoon season is here...

My 33rd Birthday!!!

So I went to the beach last weekend and somehow didn't make it home with my camera... I don't know what's wrong with me but I can't stop losing things...first my Ipod, now this... I have no pictures of the beach or our trip to the water park last week. Luckily, Steve took a ton of pictures of my birthday and I managed to drag the celebration out for three days.

I'll start with Friday: the day before my birthday. This is a typical scene where we're sitting and talking around the table at lunch just before class (we're all matching because we gotta' wear our Berhan shirts every Friday).

I made these "swimming pool" cupcakes to give to my classes to celebrate my birthday.

For some reason, people here don't like a lot of sugar in their desserts but it seems like they put sugar in everything else that you wouldn't normally want sweetened like beans and soup and mayonnaise. After eating these cupcakes, my kids asked me why Americans always use so much sugar. Wow...really? Kids that don't like sugar...

Friday night, I waited 'till midnight to open my birthday package from my family:

My awesome mom sent all kinds of fun party favors... princess party hats, rings, a pin the tail on the donkey game, balloons, and these awesome rhinestone and gold grills:

Saturday: My Birthday!

We met our students at the movie theater and went to see Prince Caspian. We all wished we had our cameras but no one did...so no picture.

It rained all day so instead of going out to eat that night, we decided to order pizza and blend up some fruity mocktail drinks...

Mocktails!!!

Joseph (president of the birthday committee) designed an amazing card for my birthday...even though the idea for the card came from his need to ridicule these camouflaged shorts I own.

I even received this camouflaged shirt and a camouflaged sewing kit so that if I ever want to disappear in the jungle...I'm completely equipped...

We were all too full of pizza, mocktails, and s'mores to eat birthday cake so we saved it for Sunday after church:

Jessica (the culinary artist) made THE MOST amazing almond, coconut, and mango cake! It was fabulous!!!

The celebration culminated in a rousing game of pin the tail on the donkey.

Every body keeps telling me 33 is going to be a great year...but I don't know how it could possibly beat 32...

We're winding down now and getting ready to leave. This is our last week of teaching and next Monday we're headed off on a ten day trip around Taiwan. Then it's another ten day trip to Thailand before we fly home. I'm sad because Jessica has decided to stay another six months and I'm feeling a little jealous that she is staying and I'm not...but on the other hand, I'm excited to get back to America where everything is familiar and I can read signs and labels and actually communicate with people.

Case in point: How in the world do you find fabric dye in a place where you can't read or speak the language? In America, this would be no problem, but here, finding just about anything can be a struggle.

I wanted to do tie-dye shirts with my class to wear for the Olympic events we're having this week. I actually got my kids to bring in t-shirts...but when I looked for dye in the stores, I couldn't find it...I have no idea if they even sell it here and I don't even know where to look. Some stores have a craft section but I haven't been able to find any kind of fabric dye. So, I resorted to dying the shirts with food coloring...unfortunately, the food coloring will probably bleed and turn all my sweaty little students into Smurf's...so much for that idea...I tried...