The End

Tomorrow is the day I leave Taiwan. Still not feeling like it is all real but also managing to get sad about leaving this place, and Rick behind. I will definitely miss Taiwan, all the friends I have made here, and all the places that I like to go. I wouldn't trade this experience for anything in the world. While I didn't blog as much as I had planned on, I'm still glad that I did blog as often as I did. If only for the reminder to myself of the time we spent here.

Our journey is ending. Rick will be in Taiwan for around another month while his fractured foot heals and then he is off on his own travels. I'm excited for him but also scared about how much I'm going to miss him. The airport tomorrow will definitely be heart breaking. How different from when we first arrived in Taiwan; crying at the airport while saying goodbye to our families to crying at the airport saying goodbye to each other. I've grown accustomed to relying on Rick to pick me up when I'm feeling down about missing my friends and family but now he will be the one I'm missing. It will definitely be a challenge but that doesn't change how proud I am of him for having the courage to take this trip on his own. That is something that I don't think I could ever do.

Tomorrow, Atlas and I will be making our way to Canada. Wish us luck. Here are some pictures of me saying goodbye to my classes. I'd be lying if I said I didn't cry after saying goodbye to some of these little cuties.

The first class I had to say goodbye to

 My babies

One of my favorite older classes, I will miss them all so much!

 Cutest weirdos ever

This class lined up for a hug from me after wards.. pretty much started bawling by the fourth hug

Goodbye dinner with some friends

My very first class I ever taught in Taiwan and my very last

Accidents and Goodbyes

On Friday night, Rick got into a scooter accident on the way to class. During the accident, his scooter fell on his foot which caused him to fracture a bone in his foot. Originally, the doctor had told him it would take eight weeks to heal. He was pretty upset, considering his plans to travel around Taiwan and elsewhere. We were 99% sure that he would be coming home with me on December 30th. But he had a follow up appointment first and we were hoping for the best.

Our friends, David and Monica, offered Rick to stay on their couch while his leg healed and then he could travel. Rick's spirits were lifted. He was thinking of asking to work at Gloria longer while he healed and then doing his trip around Taiwan (but now on a train) and then going to Sri Lanka. We headed to the doctor yesterday with high hopes. He said it was a 4-6 week healing time so that was very exciting. Rick decided on staying and working and he just had to talk to our boss.... who told him he can't work for Gloria any more because his working permit will be expired :( Set back again but Rick has decided to stay and try and look for some work during his healing time.. then travel once his leg is back to 100%.

So now instead of thinking I won't see Rick for about a month to two months.. 4-6 weeks is now added on top of that. I will miss him a lot BUT I am very excited to get to see all my friends and family. Hopefully everyone will keep me busy. (Mom and Dad, I don't mean busy with housework....)

In other news, Tuesday marked the beginning of saying goodbye to our classes which has turned out to be a lot harder than I thought. I thought that the younger classes would be harder but so far, saying goodbye to my older classes has sucked. I have been given so many cards and hugs, it feels so bittersweet to be saying goodbye. I am going to miss all my students, co-teachers and friends so much. I really wasn't expecting it to be this hard to say goodbye so maybe that is what is making it harder. I think a big aspect of it is that when I left Canada, I knew I would be back. I don't know when or if I will ever be back in Taiwan. I think that is more sad than anything.

Only eight days to go.

Twenty Two Days

It feels really weird to be having a countdown for coming home. Especially when you consider that I started this blog with a countdown for coming to Taiwan. I only have 22 days left in the country and only 19 days left until I am finished working. The other day I started to get stressed out about all the stuff I have and not being able to fit it into two suitcases, so I did what every other sane person would do. I started packing.

This only made me more stressed out. That one suitcase is half full and that is only souvenirs, some shoes (not even all my shoes), and some random little tidbits. I still have all my clothes, toiletries, medicine, shoes, coats, and all my favourite coffee mugs to pack. I want to scream. For now, I will just obsess about it and send another box of stuff home. But then every time I send a box home, I start to think, what if when I do leave, I have all this extra room because I sent so much home in boxes? What a conundrum.

This week, I've started to tell my students that I am leaving because after teaching this week's class, I will only have two more weeks with them. So far, I have only told one class. Some were confused. 

"Why are you leaving?" 

"Because I have to go home." 

"But you live in Taiwan.."
"But my mom doesn't live in Taiwan."

"She should move to Taiwan."

Or: "So when are you coming back to Taiwan?"

It was actually pretty sad to tell this particular class. I have been their one and only foreign teacher and I've gotten to watch them learn so much. I will really miss them. I'm hoping that it gets easier to tell my classes each time but I'm thinking it will actually be the opposite.

Teaching Christmas

Since we arrived right on Christmas Eve last year, we kind of missed the crazy that is Christmas at Gloria. For the past week, we've been having Christmas parties in all of our classes. Its been a lot of fun but I am so exhausted. Rick and I decided that we didn't want to just make Christmas cards with our students which is what they usually do. So I researched and found some crafts to do with different levels. With our older classes, each student gets to make a wreath and decorate it. The younger classes made reindeer with their hands for the antlers and their foot for the head. Here are a couple pictures of my cutest kids or the best jobs done to explain...

In one of my classes, we made gingerbread houses! I was pretty impressed with them. Their houses looked a lot better than mine ever have...

Our week of Christmas parties isn't over yet! We still have tonight and tomorrow. Tonight I am making Christmas cards because its their first Christmas at an English school. The next day we are making a Santa craft, and then more wreaths. All of these Christmas parties have really helped to put me into the Christmas spirit while being so far from home. It also helps that Rick surprised me with a Christmas tree! And we've been watching a lot of Christmas movies as well.

We just realized actually that as of today, we have officially been in Taiwan for a year. When we first got here, I never would've thought I'd make it the full year. And now its only 37 more days until I am back in Canada. Time really does fly.

Halloween Week in Taiwan

Day One of Halloween has gone pretty good so far! We had our classes at Ching Si and I had a lot of fun with all of them. I decided not to wear a costume but now I am wishing I did. They all had a lot of fun talking about Halloween. At the end of each lesson, I showed them a bunch of pictures that have "ghosts" in them. The last picture is of a forest and tells you to focus on the middle of the picture, and then a very scary face pops out. Rick said I shouldn't show it to the kids but they LOVED it. A lot of people believe in ghosts in Taiwan so they were sooo into the ghost stories I told and 100% focused on the picture when it happened. Everyone screamed. It was amazing. Happy Halloween! I'm also getting to know my students better and better every week. There are these two girls who come to see me throughout the day. Today, they told me who they have a crush on in the class. Soooooooooooo cute. They like the meanest boy though, I tried to tell them they should like the nice boys. The one girl said to me, "But because he is mean, he is more handsome!" Ughhhhhhhhh. I feel sorry for her later on in life haha. 

Today, I have a demo in one of my kindergarten classes. I'm always so nervous for these days but so far, they have gone pretty well. I'm really worried about this one though because we rushed it. Since next week I will be on vacation, we pushed the demo backward one week instead of forward. We shall see how it goes!

Last night, Rick and I got into the Halloween spirit by finishing watching the latest season of True Blood. Also, we made cut out pumpkins to play a game in our upcoming classes. Starting tomorrow, we get to dress up in our classes for Halloween. I'll post a picture of me, Rick, and Atlas in our costumes when we get all dressed up.

Day Two: We headed off to Costco with Rick's coteacher Julian to grab some candy for our kids. Planned some games, dressed up and we were off. Where we work, we are expected to have regular class for one hour and then a Halloween party in the second hour. The students are allowed to trick or treat to the other classes if they want, or we can do Halloween related activities. My class wanted to trick or treat so off we went. The kids have to sing a song and then, the kids in that class give them candy. The song is kind of dumb and having to sing it really ruins it for the older students who are still torn between participating and not caring. My coteacher was genuinely shocked when I told her we don't actually sing that song when we go trick-or-treating in Canada, that we just say, "trick or treat." 

Anyway, the students had fun. We taught them some Halloween words and played a couple games. They got some candy and a lot of them gave me some candy. I'm actually really excited for the next day of my Halloween week. My first class is so adorable, my second class has a test so I get to relax, and my third class is a lot of fun too.

Me and Atlas as matching minions

Day Three of Halloween was my longest. Three classes. One of my favourite classes in the afternoon with one of my favourite coteachers. The kids were adorable, my coteacher's costume was fabulous, and they got a shit ton of candy. It was a great time. My second class was an older class but we have so much fun. 

Unfortunately, it was a test day for them. Since I am going on vacation for the next two weeks (and so is my coteacher actually), we had to have the test during Halloween week. Since they were older, they didn't really mind and they all enjoyed the candy I gave them after they finished the test.

My last class was a bit older but not too old to have a Halloween party. We played games, listened to music, had some Halloween fun.

 Is it bad to have favourites? Oh well, I do. These are them. 

Our crazy boys.

Day Four was my final day of Halloween, and it was actually Halloween. On this day, I have one younger class who were totally excited and another class who are too cool for school. Regardless, I had SO MUCH fun with my first class. They were all totally in the Halloween spirit. It was amazing. So much fun.

Getting pretty hyper before the party started. We're required to do half a class of actual work and then we are allowed to have a party, they were pretty excited for the party.

Ruby is one of my best kids in this class. So helpful, always so excited and so dang smart. She is the one shooting her arms out and looking like its her birthday,

Bob (with his tongue out) made his own costume and was so worried it wouldn't be good enough! Me and my coteacher took lots of pictures to try and show him how great it was!

Singing their little hearts out. "Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat. If you don't, I don't care, I can see your underwear!"

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

BOO

It is almost Halloween and I am getting pretty excited to dress up and do fun stuff with my classes! Lucky for Rick, my parents brought him his Thor costume. I was originally planning on being Minnie Mouse but I have recently decided to change my costume. I am going to be a minion from Despicable Me! I am so excited and I can't wait to see my costume when everything comes together. Since I already bought the Minnie Mouse ears, I am going to bring them into my classes for any student who forgets to bring a costume.

The past few days I have been trying to think of inexpensive, but still fun, ideas for the classroom during Halloween. At the elementary school, it will be easy because I am just going to make a Powerpoint about Halloween with a bunch of games in between the information. But at Gloria, it will be a little more difficult. Especially considering this isn't the first Halloween a lot of my students have had so impressing them on Halloween will likely not happen. Some of my older kids aren't really that interested in Halloween so we will just have a party and do some Halloween themed games. I'll post all about my Halloween week as it is happening. 

Another aspect of Halloween where we work is Trick of Treating. My older kids refuse to do it, they don't even want the younger kids to come to our class to trick or treat. But the younger students really love it. I would love to go trick or treating, even now. Who can say no to free candy? Rick and I bought a bunch of candy in bulk from Costco because we need candy for our own classes, AND for whomever comes to trick or treat. But we're getting worried we don't have enough. We decided that after Tuesday we will see how much we have and decide then to get more or not.

We are just putting the finishing touches on Thailand. We have all but one of our hostels/hotels booked. We splurged a little at one point on the trip but it was easy to justify considering staying at our hostel in Bangkok is costing $5/night. Once we get all of our places to stay finalized, I will start looking into booking trains/planes/ferries to get around the island. I can't believe how close it is. We are both getting so excited for our vacation. ONLY NINE DAYS TO GO!!

The End is Near

So our boss emailed us back and our last day of work is January 26th. I will be booking my flight home in the next week or so and then we can all start the official countdown. The second I told my mother, she started counting the days. 

I don't think I mentioned it on the blog yet but Rick is not coming back to Canada at the same time as me. He wants to stay in Taiwan for a few more weeks to do some more travelling around the island. After that, he is planning on going to Sri Lanka, then Vietnam and possibly Cambodia. I still don't believe he will actually go through with this travelling alone thing but only time will tell. If anything, I really hope he does go to Sri Lanka. One of our very good friend's (Tarisha) is from there and her father had told us before we came to Taiwan that if we wanted to go to Sri Lanka, all we would have to do was book our flight and the rest would be taken care of. So Rick is taking him up on that offer. I really don't have any interest in doing any more travel than we already have done/will do. Plus if you take into consideration my debt from school, along with the fact that I will be making more school debt when I come home, I can't justify travelling any longer. I also just really wanna get home.

I think I have found a friend to watch Atlas while we are in Thailand. He said yes but on the condition that his roommate is okay with it. His roommate has allergies and was concerned about Atlas staying there for two weeks so we are doing a dry run this Sunday. Let's hope it goes well or off to the kennel for my baby!

This Sunday, we are headed to Taipei so it worked out well that Kyle wanted to watch Atlas for us. Rick is participating in a research study, he will be getting an fMRI procedure done. They will be watching how his brain reacts when he is shown English words in comparison to someone who is a non-Native speaker. Originally, we were both supposed to do the study. But when they called to confirm, they mentioned if there is a history of epilepsy that you cannot do the procedure. While I didn't have epilepsy, I told them about my seizure disorder. They then said I couldn't do the study because the procedure has the ability to cause a seizure. So I will go to support Rick and watch him get poked and prodded. Before the study, we are going to eat some nice Greek food and cupcakes. I am pretty excited. 

I leave you with pictures of the cutest dog in the world...

My own personal minion

He really needed a haircut!

Thanksgiving Intermission!

Slight intermission in my Hong Kong posts to say.... HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Hope everyone has an amazing couple days full of turkey and stuffing because I sure won't be eating that. Therefore, everyone I know has to eat enough for the both of us. Being away from home during holidays has really shown me how much my family and my friends mean to me. I am definitely thankful for all of them. Even if I am not home to show it. 

Three small things to update on!

1. Atlas was neutered last week. He was pretty depressed for the first few days but he is back to his happy self! We haven't been making him wear the Cone of Shame lately except when we are not around to watch him. Today, we went shopping and when he returned, he had managed to take it off his own neck. I would love to know how. Hard to be mad at such a smarty pants.

2. We went to see Gravity last night. Such an amazing movie. I was so stressed the entire time. There really isn't a better way to put it. I highly suggest going to see it, and going to see it in 3D, If you have been to the movies with me, you know that I HATE 3D. I always leave a 3D movie with a pounding headache and its generally because the 3D was not done right. However, leaving Gravity I was left with the feelings of a movie that finally did 3D perfect. I was also nauseous but that is because of how much stress I felt for the characters during the movie. Our scooter ride home was terrifying because of my stress level. Seriously. Go see it.

3. Since our vacation time off to Thailand is booked (currently planning the trip!), we e-mailed our boss to let her know we would not be renewing our contract for a second year and that we are planning on returning home once it is finished. We have to give them at least two months notice in order to get our contract completion bonus and I didn't want to give them ANY reason to keep that from us. Plus, I need to know our official contract end date so I can book my ticket home. (Probably in the next week!!)

Off to do some student comments and then continue writing Hong Kong blogs. 

Goodbyes, Manhood, and Teachers' College

We have been back from Hong Kong for about a week now and we got right back into the swing of things! This week I am planning on writing the blogs about Hong Kong. We did SO much while we were there, that I feel like it was for more than 4 days so let's see how long these blogs take me to write.

In the past couple days, we have had to say goodbye to some good friends leaving Taiwan. Saying goodbye is kind of surreal but really sad. And the goodbyes are nowhere near finished. Still have more friends leaving in the next couple weeks and it will be really hard to say goodbye.

In other news, we have booked Atlas' surgery to have his manhood removed. Our vet speaks a little English so we went in to book the appointment. Getting your pet spayed or neutered isn't that popular in Taiwan, a lot of people think it is pointless and they don't have it done. But the government here is really trying to promote it because of the massive stray dog problem that Taiwan has. So it is really cheap to get done here. In comparison to the $400 CAD it would cost us in Canada, it will cost us $62 CAD in Taiwan. So we are going for it.

The funny thing is when we went in to the vet, we kept saying to her we want to get him neutered. And she didn't understand the word. So we keep gesturing and nothing. I have an app on my phone that does translations for me so I search it and show her the Chinese character for what we want and she goes, OHHH. And then proceeds to write down "castration," on the calendar. Which I thought was interesting because even though I know that is what they do to him, I've never heard it called that before in reference to a dog. And then I realized we probably call it neutering in Canada/America so that pet owners don't feel bad about what they are doing to their dog. Regardless, the date has been set. October 5th. Atlas will go from a boy to a man to a boy. He doesn't seem aware of his fate.

Next piece of news is that I have officially applied to Teacher's College! Said goodbye to $423 (I cried..), and I have applied to three schools; Brock, York, and Western. Brock being my first choice, obviously seeing as I would love for my mother to continue making my meals when I return. York is my second choice as Toronto is super convenient for people from Niagara to come see me and easy for me to make my way home. Western is my third choice because I love the city of London and a lot of people there. The easy part of applying is done, they have taken my money. However each school has another form I have to fill out. I will basically be writing the same essay three times about why I want to be a teacher and how my experiences will help me. Anyone want to do some editing for me? I am already 75% finished the Western supplementary form, just one part to go. Western is nice enough to make their form available online ahead of time. I have to wait until mid-October for Brock's and York is supposed to make it available to me once they have received confirmation that I have applied.

Other than that, nothing is new here. Keep an eye out for what we did in Hong Kong, that will be up soon! And just wanted to say Congratulations to my cousin Chris and his amazing wife Chelsea! They got married today and I wish them the best! Sad that I couldn't be there but I was thinking of them all day today!

Baishawan Beach and Elementary School

Last Sunday we headed to Baishawan beach with a bunch of other foreign teachers. I was hesitant to go because a good friend of mine had told me it is a really big hassle to go there and not worth the time it takes. We did have a really good day but I definitely won't be going back to Baishawan beach. It was a hassle to get there! First, we had to take a bus to Taipei (30-45 minutes). Then we had to take the MRT to the end of one line (30-45 minutes). THEN we had to take a bus from the MRT stop to the beach (45 minutes). It was exhausting and we weren't even at the beach yet. Once we got there, we did have a lot of fun! I am really glad we went. It was nice to spend time with some of our friends. Especially since a few of them are leaving pretty soon. 

Another negative to Baishawan is you are not allowed to swim in the water unless you have rented a boogie board. The Taiwanese are really nervous and odd about water, which is super weird to me considering they are an ISLAND. Surrounded by WATER. A lot of my co-teachers don't know how to swim, as well as the students. So they have a roped off area that you can freely swim in. By freely swim, I mean there are 100+ people in this roped off area. Or the open sea where you can also freely swim.. with a boogie board attached to you. I am really making it sound like we had a horrible day but totally not the case! It was a lot of fun, Atlas got to swim and relax on the beach. It was his first time in sand which was super cute. I brought my camera but beaches always make me nervous about taking pictures, I know I am a child. My friend, Emily, took a lot of pictures and as soon as she posts them, I will add them here!

The day after Baishawan, Rick and I were starting our new job at the elementary school. We weren't really sure what to expect but it definitely went a lot better than either of us thought it would. Forty minutes per class goes by really fast. I had hoped to learn all of their names and that definitely isn't happening. It is such a different environment compared to our cram school. No co teacher and 25-30 students in every class. By the time we had our lunch break (an hour after three forty minute classes), we were exhausted. We're lucky to live a two minute drive from the school so we went home to see Atlas and we just sat in silence. So so tired. Hopefully tomorrow we are better suited to the hours.

Today is Sunday, our day off! And we have a lot planned. There is a restaurant across the street from our building called Hot Dog Man. We kind of love it. The lady there speaks really good English and she is super nice, we really want them to succeed. Every time we have gone, we are the only people in there. They are having a promo day today with free hot dogs so we are going to that. After that, we are going swimming at Bobo's apartment (our amazing Chinese teacher). Then she invited us to the Performing Arts Theater. They are having a free festival there, not really sure what is going on but will update later.

HOT DOG MAN

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekends back home! Miss you all lots!

New Classes and Amazing Food

Not a lot has been going on lately. I have just been waiting for the teacher's college application to become available, which is SO frustrating. I just want to do it now. The thing that sucks is that there is the online application which is pretty straightforward but which isn't available yet. BUT each school I want to apply to also has an extra profile that I have to fill out and Brock, York and UOIT all have yet to release it. A big thank you to whomever works at Western and decided to be nice and let everyone see it early. Hopefully they are all pretty similar and I can just tweak each of my answers a little to fit the specific questions each school asks.

Anyway, Rick and I were both given new classes! Starting next Monday, we will both work from 9AM-3PM at a local elementary school. We are really only teaching for 3.5 hours (we teach 5 classes for 40 minutes each and get an hour lunch break), BUT we get paid for 4.5 hours of teaching so it is a pretty good gig. Plus the school is super close to our apartment. I am actually really excited for this because working at an actual elementary school will look really good (hopefully) on my teacher's college applications. Better than just working at the cram school that I work at. Rick is less excited about more work but the prospect of more money definitely excites him haha. For those of you who don't know, Rick is pretty stingy. So making money makes him really happy!

In other news, we went to Taipei for the day last Sunday. It was pouring rain literally all day long but we really didn't want to waste our one day off. We were originally planning on going to Yehliu where they have these beautiful natural rock formations but that will have to be saved for a sunny day. We went to Taipei just to eat some good food. Taoyuan has okay food but Taipei has AMAZING food.

Our first stop was Macho Tacos. We have both been hearing about this place for a long time and we were really excited. We love Mexican food and we were nowhere near disappointed. It was like being back home because I got to eat my favourite (soft shell tacos) and Rick got his favourite (hard shell tacos). We each tried chicken, taco meat, and pork and each one was so good. 

Our whole meal cost us $410 NT, so just about $13 CAD. We had three tacos each, a drink, and churros for dessert. Which were amazing. Definitely can't beat those prices compared to eating out in Canada. Rick and I are both fully aware about how cheap we are going to be when we come home, considering how we are so used to spending no money here.

Our next stop was 12 Cupcakes. Rick had been the week before without me and knowing full well how much I LOVE cupcakes, he didn't bring me one home. But he did promise to take me here and he came through on his promise. The cupcake shop itself was so cute and the cupcakes were definitely amazing. But the prices were ridiculous. It was really nice to go but we definitely won't be back anytime soon. We each got two cupcakes and I got a coffee and it cost us $410 NT, so about $13 CAD. THE SAME PRICE AS OUR ENTIRE MEAL AT MACHO TACOS. Insanity. The kinds we bought were red velvet with creme cheese icing, peanut butter and chocolate, and chocolate and salted caramel. Yummy, but expensive.

Even Atlas wanted a bite!

Typhoon Day.. Part Two

Yesterday was our second typhoon day here in Taiwan. (I know, I didn't blog about the first yeah yeah yeah..) ANYWAY. Typhoon day, you may be asking yourself, what in the world is that? The best I can do to compare to Canada is that it is like a snow day. Except instead of snow, we have lots of rain and sometimes heavy winds. The previous typhoon day (Typhoon Soulik) was a lot more intense, crazy rain and a lot of heavy winds. This typhoon day was mild, to say the least. It rained a lot but it wasn't unbearable.

We spent our day watching movies, playing with Atlas, watching Big Love (almost done the series, so good, can't believe how hooked we are), baking, and hanging out with our friend Steven. I've mentioned Steven before, he was a big help in getting our apartment and in life in general in Taiwan. He called us up and asked if we wanted to hang out at his apartment building since they have a badminton court there, Rick obviously jumped at the chance. Personally, I was just excited to get to be driven around in a car. (A rarity in Taiwan for us English teachers.)

So our Typhoon Day was pretty unexciting. I would've been happy working though, especially considering that Wednesdays I have three classes and make good money. It was nice to have a day off though.  What is exciting though is that in less than a month, we will be in Hong Kong for four days. Flight is booked, hostel is booked, now just to specifically plan it all out. I really want to go to Disneyland, wish me luck in convincing Rick. Also some exciting news, we're headed to Thailand in November for two weeks! Flight is booked! Just have to do everything else haha but first, Hong Kong.

We have been in Taiwan for 8 months. Although our contract is supposed to be one year long, time is added whenever we take a vacation day or a sick day. Our contract ends here at the end of January so just about 5 months to go. Five months seems like such a long time on some days and such a short time on others. Can't wait to see all of my family and friends but I will also be very sad to leave here when the time comes. Definition of bittersweet.

Wo men you xiao gou

This post is really just for random life updates.

1. Wo men you xiao gou = WE HAVE A SMALL DOG.

Probably one of the most exciting things to happen in Taiwan. Small dog! His name is Atlas, he is five months old, cutest little boy around. We have already looked into bringing him back to Canada and it should be relatively easy. I've already started the process. He is so adorable. When we first got him, he was such a clutz. He couldn't understand the concept of a step, he would just fall off but he is learning. Here is a couple pictures of his first time swimming this past weekend.

2. Our Chinese lessons. Personally, I feel like I have hit a plateau and I am really unmotivated lately. I know how to order food, answer questions when people ask me but past that, it is getting harder. I am trying to focus but I just don't have the motivation right now to learn more. We shall see where this goes, we still have six months left here, I should probably keep trying.

3. Most people already know this, but I have decided to apply for teacher's college for September 2014. That means I have to apply this December. I've started to look at what the applications entail already and I am hoping to stop being lazy and start preparing soon.

4. I was just given a new kindergarten class (MY FAVOURITE) so I am now up to 26.5 hours per week. Rick was also given a new class so he is up to 23.5. I really think where we work is having a foreign teacher shortage right now. I know of 8 people who are leaving in the next two months. It will definitely be a different environment with all of those people gone. Especially since a lot of them definitely helped me to get used to living in Taiwan. I will miss all of them.

5. My cousin, Stefan, and his beautiful fiancee, Amy, are getting married in May 2014. And.. they have asked me to be a bridesmaid! I am so excited! I was already very excited for their wedding because Stefan is the first of my cousins on my mother's side of the family to get married but now I am even more excited. I can't wait and I am so honored to be a part of their special day!

Summer Camps

I know it's been awhile since my last post but let's just forget about that. Moving on ..

Since it is summer vacation, the little children are out of school! But since this is Taiwan, their parents think they should be studying so they put them in summer camps. There are three different summer camps where we work, a cooking camp, a sports camp, and a combo camp. Seeing as me and sports tend to clash, I wasn't interested in the combo or the sports camp. Cooking camp it is! I went to the workshop, seemed pretty easy. And then I had my first cooking camp! I was given another one after that but I haven't been given one since..... maybe the kids didn't like my omelettes the second time around haha

Day One: Breakfast - Omelettes and French Toast
The first omelette was really bad. The school gave me one egg per student and they were all so picky about what they wanted in it. I thought I would be doing one egg at a time. But the first omelette was a disaster, it tasted good so it wasn't too bad but it definitely was not an omelette. More like scrambled eggs with ham and onions. After that, I told them to find someone who wants some of the same things as you and mix your eggs together. In my first week, I was really lucky with the kids I had in the camp. Their English was pretty good and they were a lot of fun to joke around with. My second camp was at a more high end school so the kids were a little more... picky. 
All of them were super hesitant about the french toast. I swore it was amazing but they just didn't believe me. Lucky for me, French Toast is simple and fast. They all loved it and now I can make it in record time.

Day Two: Salmon Pasta with a White Sauce
I can't decide which week this went worse in. The first week, the pot they gave me to boil the pasta was too small and we ended up burning a lot of the pasta. The second week, cooking cream was apparently not available in all of Taiwan so we had to improvise. The kids said it tasted good but the sauce was very watery. Still not a master chef at this dish. Which I thought was ironic because when I saw day two was pasta, I thought it would be super easy. Not the case.

Day Three: Chicken Curry
I was expecting this day to be the hardest but it actually ended up being relatively easy. Who knew that chicken curry was easy to make? Not me. It was so good to eat too! While it was easy to do, this was probably the most stressful day. Most of the recipe requires cutting vegetables, or meat. Watching kids use a knife makes me cringe, a lot. Especially the younger ones. But we got through it and no one cut themselves. Success!

Day Four: Hamburgers and a Blueberry Smoothie
This day was definitely a lot of fun. Who doesn't love hamburgers? The only thing that sucked was the school gave us HUGE hamburgers buns and only enough hamburger meat to cover less than half the bun. Kind of embarrassing but whatever, the kids loved the hamburgers. The blueberry smoothies were just fun to make. The recipe we were given had NO measurements whatsoever so we just kept adding ingredients until the students said it tasted good.

Day Five: Field Trip!
On the last day of the camp, we get a field trip! We get to go to a cake factory and the kids get to decorate the smallest cake I have ever seen. This day was a lot of fun, very laid back. And consisted of me counting heads a lot. I felt very old, like one of my teachers in elementary school who was constantly counting heads on the bus.

The cooking camp was definitely a learning experience for me. For those of you who know me, I am not a cook. Baking is my thing, specifically, cupcakes. Cooking, not so much. That is Rick's job. I get to clean. But now I can safely say that I have mastered the art of omelettes, french toast, chicken curry, and hamburgers. Go me!

Green Island ft. the Pituls

Okay.. I have been slacking lately on the blog but moving on... MY PARENT'S CAME TO TAIWAN. I put ft. the Pituls in the title because maybe the Lococos will come visit us too one day! (Hint.. hint... nudge.. nudge.. wink.. wink......)

SOOO. My parents arrived, they were very tired after their long trip and we still had a couple days of work. So for the first few days, we just did little things with them. Took them to the Taipei Zoo, the Maokong Gondolas. And then we were off to Green Island. Our trip to Green Island started with an eight hour train ride that left at 6AM... such a joy. But the seats were comfortable and I mostly slept. While my mother spent 96% of the train ride taking pictures of what we went past. After the train ride, a taxi ride with a very friendly taxi driver and a pleasant ferry ride (read: extremely rough ferry ride), we were at Green Island!!

We met up with the people we booked our trip through and were taken to our eBikes. Now my mother wasn't sure about these bikes at first and said she would just use it as a normal bike. But by the end of the trip, she was a eBike professional. Weaving around pot holes and bumps in the road. Without the eBikes, Green Island wouldn't have been nearly as enjoyable. While it is a small island (17 km around), there were no taxis at all so walking around the island would not have been an option. The eBikes took us everywhere and were a lot of fun to ride. We had a couple problems with the battery dying but the hostel owners were quick to help us and we were on our way.

Our hostel was also a lot better than I expected. A fellow teacher had told me to expect "rustic," when going into Green Island so my expectations were very low. However, I was pleasantly surprised. The hostel was very clean and very comfortable. Air conditioning and a pretty nice shower. 

Included in our package was snorkeling. My father and Rick were very excited for this part while me and my mother were hesitant. We went out, got our flippers and all our gear, and stayed on land. My mom and I just couldn't get the hang of it so we told the boys to go off on their own and have a good time. Rick says that Green Island was the best snorkeling spot that he has ever been to, he saw so many different kinds of fish. They both loved snorkeling so much that they continued to snorkel four different times on our three days there.

The hot springs at Green Island were another highlight. They are one of the three only natural salt water hot springs in the world. The other two being in Italy and Japan. Rick and I have decided that we want to go to all three. The hot spring down by the beach wasn't open but we still enjoyed the other hot springs. It was beautiful. Nothing like the Beitou hot springs in Taipei which I found kind of dirty and off putting. These were so clean, and just so relaxing. We all had an amazing time.

Finally, the food. Green Island is known for its seafood since it is an island. Some of the seafood we ate was just okay.. some was amazing. We enjoyed eating so much. Every meal was a new adventure, and breakfast was included with the package that we booked! We also ate the best shaved ice that I have ever eaten while we were there. 

Here are some picture highlights of the trip!

The train ride

The ferry ride

Green Island

We booked our package through Green Island Adventures and I would recommend this company to anyone. I was originally worried about the payment method but everything went without a hitch. They made our time on Green Island amazing and without any difficulty. We booked the Relax package and had an amazing time. I cannot say enough good things about this company. We loved our time in Green Island and they are the sole reason why. Here is the link if anyone is interested! http://www.greenislandadventures.com/

From Green Island, we went on to Kaohsiung! Next blog post coming up!