Coming Home!!

This last week here with Austin has been very busy but so much fun!!! We have done so much in just a few short days! I was very happy that I saved some things for us to explore together! We head out to the airport in the morning at 8. Our plane leaves Taipei at 11am on the 29th and we arrive in Portland at 12pm on the 29th! Only one hour later! Even though our trip is much longer than that, about 23 hours!! I will be able to see you all soon! And I will post about my last week when I get home! I need to get some sleep before my big day!!

Austin is here!!

The last week went by so fast! I had such a great time with the girls doing the last few things that they wanted to do. Monday we had out last Family School Community Collaboration class. We took a test, ate some snacks and took lots of pictures with our new friends. Monday night we all went out to the Shilin Night Market for the last time(not mine but the other girls' last time). Carly and I had the best shaved ice ever!!Tuesday was our special dinner just for the OSU students. We went to a crazy restaurant! The designer hand made everything with in the building. There was so much art and designs all over the building. The walls and chairs and tables were all designed by the one artist as well as the dishes!! It was so much fun!! The food was great too. It was just down the road from a special mall in Taiwan called Mirmar. The mall is famous for its gigantic Ferris wheel! We didn't go on it, but it was fun to see!

Wednesday night was our last culture class. We had a farewell party that was thrown by the Taiwanese students. I really enjoyed it because it was Christmas themed!! There were a lot of tears and a lot of pictures. It was weird to watch all of the other students say goodbye since I will still have one more week here with Austin. I did tear up when the FJU students told us all how thankful and happy they were that we came because many of them cried. It was very nice to see how much they enjoyed us being here! That night Carly and Dee both slept in my room!
Thursday the girls and I ate our favorite Taiwanese breakfast. And hung out all day packing and laughing. We went to Ximen for a sushi dinner, and it was good as always!!! Then we invited 3 FJU students (Irene, Ariel & Annabelle) to come and sleep over. We brought 3 mattresses in my room and we all slept together. We played charades and it was so funny. Other students came and hung out with us, but they did not stay over night. We, of course, were told to be quiet numerous times but could never quite be able to control how loud we were laughing. It was such a great last night! I also got to say a last goodbye to Austin on skype as he headed out to catch his plane to come here!!!
Friday morning we woke up at 5:30-ish to start getting ready to head out for the airport at 7:30. I helped to make sure that all of the girls were all packed up and then got my stuff ready since I was going to the airport with the girls to see them off, and then waiting the 12 hours in the airport for Austin to get in!! It is expensive to travel to and from the airport if I want to do it quickly ($30 USD) and really slow if I want to do it for a small price (2 hours!) So I just decided to stay all day and then I would be able to see off all of the OSU students because many were leaving at different times. Irene, Ariel & Annabelle hung out with me for a little while. We had some good talks and just kind of walked around the airport. They left around 9pm. Austin's plane landed a little before 9:45... about 20 minutes early! I was so excited to see him. It took forever for him to come out of the arrival gate. I just waited there with my little sign!!! I was so excited to finally see him!! We took a taxi back to the hostel, it was fun to hear Austin comment on the crazy driving that I am now very used to. He claimed to not be very tired... until his head hit the pillow then he was out like I knew he would be.
We woke up early this morning (The time change does that to you) and got up and walked out to breakfast and I gave Austin a little tour of the campus. Then we came back and let our food settle then went on a run. We went back around campus and then to the track. There was a lot of people around and it was fun to see everyone playing baseball. Austin is taking a nap now and then we will have a small lunch before his test! We are going to a dinner at the BBQ that I went to in the first week that I was here. It will be a lot of fun. Some of the Taiwanese students are going to come too! They are all excited to meet Austin! We have a lot planned for this week! I hope that the weather stays as nice as it is today!!

See everyone soon!!

Only a few days left...

This past week has been very relaxed but a lot of fun! I went running everyday! I was very proud of myself for being so dedicated... if only I can stay that way when I get home! :) Monday and Tuesday not much happened. I hung out with a couple of FJU students on Tuesday night so that we could work on our group project and then we went out to dinner which was fun! Wednesday night Hayley's mom was due to land in the international airport at 10pm. We went out to dinner on the way to the airport at Hooters! It was actually good food... I had a nice big salad... I have been missing a nice big plate of veggies!! After dinner just Hayley and I headed to the airport to pick up her mom. It was a long trip but it was very exciting!

Thursday we went to coffee with Ariel and Annabelle. I am going to miss these two girls so much! They have been so amazing since I have been here and befriended me right at the beginning. They are so wonderful to hang out with! I really hope that they will one day be able to come to the States!! We always have such a great time together! Friday was another great day! For lunch one of the girls in my Monday class wanted to make me and some of the other girls a late lunch early dinner! Nonoy was such a great hostess! Her and her boyfriend Bruce worked on so much food for us! She even made sure to have more than enough vegetarian stuff for me to eat. I am going to get recipes from her on Monday in our class. After we ate we sat and talked and played a couple rounds of MahJong! It was such a great time. It was nice to feel like we were at home and spending time with our friends like we normally would. And we didn't have to be forced to do it in the hostel. We stayed at Nonoy's apartment for a while.
On Saturday we decided to make and outing to go to Ximen and to Taipei 101. It was such a nice day, the sun was out and it was warm. I am sure that I got a few more freckles!! I think that they have almost doubled on this trip! We walked around Ximen and shopped... I was excited because I finally found mom's Christmas present!!! YAY!! We had a great time just walking around the street eating ice cream... having sushi for lunch.. then heading out to 101.


I am still waiting to go up to the very tip top until Austin get s here! But it would have been a beautiful day to do it! Hopefully the weather will stay nice. It is pretty unpredictable. I shopped around the bookstore that I found out was actually named the #1 bookstore in Asia. It is called Page One. I bought the first book to a new series that I want to start called Twilight. I am excited to start it, but I think that I am going to save it for the Friday Austin flies in to distract myself from waiting. We got some Starbucks and I was so excited to see that they started using their winter cups! It always makes me more excited for Christmas when they do that! I really truly can not believe that in 5 days all of the girls that I have lived with for the last ten weeks will be gone. It is going to go by so fast. I have finished all of the work that I will need to have done for the rest of my term. All I have to do now is attend class... and most of that will probably just be fun stuff. It is going to be so hard to have to say goodbye to the people here. I feel very lucky that I get one extra week to stay here and still be able to see my new friends! As for the girls on the trip... we all ready have a few plans for when we get home... I am so excited that we are planning on staying in touch! They are amazing ladies and they have made my experience here so much better! I am so thankful for that!!!

I will be home in 2 weeks! Just in time to sit and watch the civil war game... on the couch.. probably very jet lagged and only half conscious, but I will love being home!!

Weekend trip to Hua Lien

This last weekend we went on a group trip to the Eastern part of the island to a county & city called Hua Lien. It is probably my favorite place in Taiwan. Everywhere we went was so beautiful with breathtaking views of the sky, a lake, the mountains, a river, or the ocean. It was amazing that there was so much to see in such a small area! On our way down the island we stopped at a few places to see some beautiful views of the ocean. We then went to a place called Carp Lake. This is where I took the picture below!!

We really enjoyed walking around the lake and looking at everything, even though it was a very hot day! After Carp Lake we went to see a n old logging camp and and old sugar refinery. These were both small sights with not a lot to see. The logging camp was in a pretty wooded area, but the sugar refinery was now just a bunch of little shops. The hotel that we stayed the night at was in the city of Hua Lien and was very nice. We were all able to get a bunch of rest for the next day. I woke up early to go on a run. It was so beautiful. I ran in to the West which gave me a beautiful view of the mountains! It was a good way to distract myself! I went back to the hotel and got ready and ate breakfast and we all headed out to the beach!! It was such a beautiful beach with many rocks and lots of sunshine! We were so happy to have some since our time at the beach in Kenting was full of rain.

We walked around the beach collecting rocks and taking pictures. I found a dead/dried puffer fish that was really cool to look at.... but kinda sad. We were right next to an air base so we were able to see 4 fighter jets take off over the mountains ! Next we went to the Headquarters for the Taroko Gorge. We had a lunch (that was really yummy!) and then set off to explore the Gorge. It was one of the most beautiful things that I have ever seen. There were parts of it that were deeper than the Grand Canyon!!! I guess that it is listed in the book 1000 Places to See Before You Die! And I have been there, so that was neat! I could not believe how beautiful it was. The base of the gorge was made out of marble! The water was a dark milky clay color from running over the marble and from an earthquake that had happened not long before. I feel like I should have been a little more worried on our walk/hike through the gorge because there was signs everywhere saying to be careful of rock falls, and there were rocks that had obviously fallen from somewhere above all over the pathways. But I was too involved in looking around at all of the natural beauty to think about it until we were back on the bus!
These are pictures of me by a shrine that was built around a natural waterfall . It was built in memory of all of the 200+ people who died and 700+ people who were injured in building the road through Taroko Gorge. I guess that the road and all of the tunnels were built by hand with pick axes. I could not believe it!! (I am sure that they had a lot more modern work done on them eventually.)
That night we stayed at a youth hostel in the gorge. Our view from our room was pretty but the food at the hostel was not good! I counted 5 small ants crawl over my tray at dinner time. I tried my best to eat , but I ended up eating just a bunch of white rice. Breakfast was much better, I love warm soymilk now, so anytime I can get it I am content! At 8 in the morning after breakfast we all headed out for a 2 hour hike through more of the gorge. We saw so many beautiful views and walked through a lot of caves. Davey, our tour guide even put me in charge of carrying one of the "torches" (flashlight). He designated me to the rear of the group.... I am always slow because I like to look at everything and appreciate it , and also take a lot of pictures (I ended up with 307 from this trip!)
Seeing these waterfalls reminded me of all of the hiking that I did as a child! We had to cross a very wobbly suspension bridge to get a good view of the waterfalls! (Don't worry mom, I walked very carefully!!!)
Coming back to Taipei was almost sad because I loved being in Hua Lien so much. I had an absolutely amazing time! I wish that I could go back. But I would have to somehow rent a car and what not. I can't believe that in just about 10 days Austin will be here and all of the other students will be gone. I am excited to come home, but can not believe that this adventure is almost over.

There are many more pictures on some online albums on my facebook. Here are the links to look at them. I will be posting the 3rd link soon when I get the album uploaded!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2156460&l=a84b1&id=19712929

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2156474&l=dbd7d&id=19712929

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2156870&l=1ef54&id=19712929

Birthdays, Election Days, 15 Days until Austin is here!

Here is a picture of me mailing some letters home!!
Eating at the Hot Pot restaurant with Ariel!

Sunday was Hayley's birthday. We told her that all day we were going to do what she wanted to do! We left the hostel around 4 to head off to the Ximen area to do a little bit of shopping around before we headed to dinner at the Skylark at 6. The dinner was a lot of fun. Many of our Taiwanese friends showed up through out the night! A lot of them brought gifts for Hayley, and so many of them were crafty! There were some beautiful and fun handmade cards, and Jean and Daisy compiled a book of pictures with notes to Hayley in it from the Taiwanese and OSU students. Hayley really liked it! At dinner I was so excited to be able to have salad! I also had the yummiest mushroom soup with a puffy pastry on top of it. I loved it. I could definitely eat there again. Hayley got a special birthday dessert for free, but since she had already ordered herself one she gave hers to me!! It was really yummy!

Since it was Hayley's 21st birthday we had a drink. I had a sangria that was pretty good... she had something with Kaluha in it... yuck.
After dinner at the Skylark Hayley wanted to walk around and shop a little bit more, then we headed to TGI Fridays. I had never been there before, which I thought was weird. I went to an American restaurant for my first time in Taiwan. Ha. Hayley had a couple more drinks ( I didn't have any) and another free dessert, which I did help her eat a little of! :) It was a good Sunday!

I still have not slept in my own room since the spider incident. I am thinking that I might get brave enough soon. Monday Carly and I went on a run in the morning and then we all headed to class. We had our group meeting after that. All in all the day was pretty uneventful.

Tuesday we had our second test in our families and poverty class. We got our scores back today and I got 100%. I am trying to decide whether or not I should worry about doing the extra credit book report. We will see. After class on Tuesday I went on a nice long run with Carly, I am pretty sure that it was about 4 miles, we just kept running behind campus and out to a hill/mountain behind the university and up it a tiny but and then back. We talked the whole way, it is a great time for us to talk about anything and everything together! Then we met up with 3 Taiwanese students and went to Starbucks together and to Shilin night market. I bought a couple of scarves for so cheap, but did not spend much because I did not bring much cash with me, on purpose! We had such a great time walking around drinking juice and laughing together. I am really going to miss these girls when I am gone.

Today I woke up and turned on CNN to watch the election information! I watched as much as I could before class. In class I gave my second book report which I thought went pretty well. Our professor let us out of class 30 minutes early so that we could finish watching the election coverage. I must say that all of us here (including the Taiwanese students) are very happy with the results. We thought that it was funny that all of us on this trip voted the same way! I have another class tonight and then I need to pack for our weekend trip to Hua lien. We finally get to go, this was the trip that was cancelled because of our first typhoon! It should be so beautiful and we should have nice weather. It has been very hot and sunny! I will fill you all in with come pictures and stories when I come back!!

I miss you all and love you all! I will be home in about 3 weeks! Austin will be here in 15 days! I can't believe that I have been gone for so long!!

Halloween and Buddhism

Halloween here in Taiwan was so much fun! We really had a great time! We started preparing for the party around 1030 or 11 in the morning on Friday. After we set up the lounge I went upstairs to take a shower. When I got out of the shower I walked to my closet, like usual, to find and it was right by the door so I did not want to go open it. When Hayley hit the door the scary spider ran into a huge crack in my wall. I finally let Hayley in, and I almost started to cry! Worst my clothes, I then went to my desk to check my email, still in my towel... then I saw it..... A HUGE SPIDER ON MY WALL! Now when I say huge I do not mean huge in America. I mean HUGE!!! It was the biggest spider that I have seen in the wild, or maybe even in a cage. It was the size of my palm, at least. I called for Hayley to come into my room but my door was locked way to start Halloween. But then Hayley, Carly , and I all took a nap together in Carly's spider free bedroom and when we woke up we were refreshed and ready for our Halloween party. We got all dressed up and then went to the preschool on campus and played with the little children. Even with the language barrier we had a great time! I was dressed up like the Head Elf from Santa's workshop. But most people here don't know about elves. After the preschool we came home and finished preparing the tons of snacks we had. So many people ended up coming. It was a great success and worth all of the time that we put into it. Dee did such a great job of planning it all!!

walked out to my closet, turned around and there he was AGAIN!! And even BIGGER than I incident. We woke up early on Saturday morning to go on our field trip. I took my shower, thought he was the first time! He was GIGANTIC and he was standing on my wall right over my bathroom door that I walked out of from my shower! He could have jumped on me! I screamed for Hayley, again, and she came in. I stood on my bed and almost passed out. Hayley went at him and started trying to kill him. He ran into my bathroom. She risked herself and followed him in and finally killed him. Then we flushed him down my toilet. One of his legs would not go down! It was so gross. I was flushing the toilet all day! After that I could finally get ready, but I have still been checking every corner of my room when I come in. For our field trip we went to Dharma Drum Mountain which is a Buddhist Temple. The public can go there to pray and learn about Buddhism. It was a really pretty place, it was too bad that we could not take any pictures except for by the pond outside of the small temple and outside where we were waiting for the bus. We were supposed to stay quiet through out the tripFriday night after the Halloween party I slept in Hayley's room with her because of the spider and create peace and a calmness inside of ourselves. As you all know I am not very good at being quiet. But I succeeded through this trip! :) I actually really enjoyed hearing about the religion and seeing some of the history of the Temple there.

This is a view of the northern coast that I took while we were on the bus headed to Juming Museum. It really reminded me of home!

After the Dharma Drum we went to Juming Museum on Jinshan (Jin Mountain). It was so neat. Ju Ming is the artist that organized the building of a huge outdoor museum where his work could be displayed. He made huge sculptures out of iron and bronze and they were spread out through out the 14 hectacres. It was fun to walk around. We had a great time!!

A gigantic zipper that creates a pond!This was one of my favorite pieces of art! It was part of Ju Ming's living world series. They are men made of bronze! It was really neat!

At midnight tonight we celebrated Hayley's birthday! We surprised her with a birthday cake and each ate a piece and laughed for a long time!! Yay for turning 21! Too bad alcohol is not allowed in the hostel!