Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by the,." -John F. Kennedy


The second weekend in November, Kelly, Brittany, Laura and I went bungee jumping off of a bridge that stood 40 meters above countless rocks. While we were slightly disappointed with the height and that we would not be jumping out over water, I think our biggest momentary disappointment was finding out we would not be diving into the empty air. Instead we would be jumping off backwards.

Initially I was bummed we wouldn't get the "full" experience. But how quickly my mind changed after I got out on that plank to jump.    Up until the day of, I didn't think too much about the actual jump.
It was located in a quaint little town called Shuili. Luckily my friend Sam knew the way and we scooted the two hours there, just making it in time. (Scooter's are ideal, but not for two hour drives!)

The people who ran the bungee jumping international made it an even better experience. They joked with us, teased our nervousness, and just mentally toughened us up for the jump. I went third, and while the video does better than any description I could give. When I finally put my heels off of the edge, I knew there was no going back. Even if I wanted to, the guy in front of me wouldn't have let me. I look horrified in my video and I screamed the entire initial jump. Coming up I was "shaky mcgee." What a rush, what a feeling it gives. I am grateful my first jump was not a dive.

Before jumping back on a scooter for two hours again we visited the oldest train station in Taiwan. We had lunch and took some pictures. Then we got to hold a snake that a woman had been carrying. I was born in 1989, therefore in the Chinese calendar I am the year of the snake.  2013 is also the year of the snake, so it seemed fitting to show him some love! :-)

Gina has become a great friend in to me here in Taichung. She took us to a delicious lamb hot pot when the timing was just right. Certain meats, fruits, almost all food here, has a given time it is usually eaten by most. Whether the reason is for the harvest, for health, luck, fortune, or fertility. She will also be celebrating my 25th birthday with me in Hong Kong. I had Rainbow Time at the cultural center the following week. Once or twice a year, each teacher will read a RT story to anyone and everyone who decides to come to the cultural center to listen. Normally an activity, a song, arts and crafts, etc are also added into the 50 minute 'lesson.' For the most part is it young children with their parents and a few 8-10 year olds. The older ones will usually know English, but not always. I had one student I know show up from Little Critters with his father, and T. Alice helped we teach them all about the water cycle!

The Taichung Art Museum has changed the majority of its displays so I returned to check them out. It was titled, Everyday Life - Asian Art - Biennial. Although museums are always so full of so many opposing, intuitive, complex, deep, or just plain confusing pieces of art. I felt like I was really understanding most of it. Maybe it is because I have been living here for almost half of a year, or maybe I myself have an artistic side. Nonetheless I spent over two hours absorbing, digesting, and appreciating all of the warmth, humanity, and often sadness I felt from the work. Am I getting too deep? Well fortunately for you, pictures are not allowed to be taken inside the museum so I will not be able to share much more than how the pieces made me react.

When other teachers go out for vacation I get to sub many of their kindy classes!
These are the Turtles, T. Brittany's DaBan class! They are some smart cookies :-)

Happy 5 Months in Taiwan!

Michelle, Angela, Me, Brittany, and Cassie outside of Tiger.

Finally had the chance to go to Tiger. Basically a giant, two floor Dave & Busters, plus a bowling ally. I can say I've never seen anyone rock the dancing game (where your feet have to hit certain squares to the beat) like I did that night. I stuck to what I know best, air hockey and basketball shots. 

Cornel had their Thanksgiving Pot Luck dinner this past weekend. All of the English teachers, Chinese teachers, Cornel staff, many of the parents and students joined together in prayer before the feast started. The food was endless. It was incredibly nice to have some traditional thanksgiving food such as, turkey and gravy, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, corn, and I even made mac and cheese for everyone. With all of the Taiwanese dishes and the desserts, it was heaven. There are not to many times we get these big meals where you can continue to go back and get more. No one is living with their mama anymore!

3rd Grade Stars!

The following Monday we celebrated Thanksgiving with our students. Similar to Halloween, every student has English at some point on Monday so it is the best day to celebrate. The students watched 'Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving,' had a turkey snack and then took a picture with a thanksgiving turkey. Simple, but they loved it.

Someone got ahold of T. Kalee's camera.

Evening Stars!

Beihua and I at the dinner. Owner of Cornel.

The happy couple: Patricia and Franc

I was invited to my first traditional Chinese wedding of Patricia and Franc. Patricia is the head of Chinese staff for Cornel at the Shang-An campus. I was very fortunate to spend my first month at Shang-An and a wonderful weekend to Kenting with her and the other teachers earlier this year. The dinner lasted for three hours and had over 10 courses of food. I tried an abundant amount of raw fish, and a small amount of shark fin, squid, caviar, oysters, duck, shrimp, and tons of fruit!

The wedding courses.

T. Glory, who was my summer school co-teacher, was the MC for the event, as well as another former Cornel teacher, Kaki. They did a wonderful job of keeping the spirits up and translating back and forth. There were table games and group games as well. T. Michelle had to give and receive Eskimo kisses with the groom. If we were not all in such lovely dresses we may have been rolling on the floor laughing at that display. Susan, head foreign director, also had to get a piggy back ride from her new man down the aisle. Krista and Mike were asked to take a shot of whiskey, when really it was a drink of whatever the table guests decided to toss into the wine glass when Glory came around.

Katie, Holli, Clair & I

Mike & John; 2/3 of our male staff!

I sat at the table just to the right of the bride and groom. I sat next to Beihua and T. Rhonda. Also at our table was John (head of Rainbow Time) and his fiance, Janet. Susan (head Foreign director) and her man, Amanda (head Nanmen director), Peter (Cornel's computer genius), and Mae (Cornel's right hand woman). The dresses were so unique and gorgeous. I am so thankful to have had a reason for buying one. The girls, the Cornel staff, the families, the love of everyone there made it such a magical evening.

T. Glory and I

Alice called us "Stop Light!"

I must say I am also very grateful to still be able to go to American movies such as "Thor" and "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire." It is one of the few things I can do here, that friends and family back home can do as well. Plus, I would be lying if I said I didn't miss seeing a hunky hero across the big screen. ;-)

The good & The bad; Things I've learned this month:

-There are over 100 night markets in Taiwan.
-No daylight savings time in Taiwan.
- The Taiwanese guys can and will surprise you.
- 119 is the emergency number.
-Taiwan ranks #1 in gender equality in Asia.
-Taiwan is 112 miles from the coast of China.
- 38th largest island
-The African Rhino is extinct :-(
-Typhoon Haiyan hit the Phillippines killing thousands!
-They use the words "play" for travel, and "live" for stay.
-National Sport: Baseball.
-Able to vote at 20, drive at 18, drink...18 or whatever....
- All Taiwanese men must serve 1 year in the army.
-Freedom of religion in Taiwan.
-Taiwan is one of Asia's "Tiger Economies" with Singapore, South Korea, and Hong Kong.
-Sits along Pacific Ring of Fire, 75% of earth's active volcanoes.
-Unemployment rate 4.3% (2011)

"Although Taiwan is prosperous and a fully functioning democracy, it is not recognized diplomatically by other nations. .... because mainland China has long withdrawn its own diplomats from any nation that recognizes Taiwan."

Favorite Chinglish shirt so far!

"One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child." - Carl Jung

Happy Thanksgiving -- K

Nightmare on Nan Men Lou

I had an incredible Halloween weekend in Taiwan. From the ending of Jazz fest to homemade costumes, to dancing all night, and instructing the most adorable students how to make a 'pom pom monster,' it was a weekend to remember.  

We celebrated Halloween October 26th. We had our own party, then pre-purchased tickets to one of the bigger costume parties in Taichung, at the Show Room. My roommate Kelly and I, along with our good friend Brittany made home-made costumes. We went as Taiwan Beer, all we used was an abundant amount of felt, safety pins, a headband, and an ashtray(for the bottle cap). The costumes all turned out pretty well. We entered into the contest, but sadly didn't even got 4th place and only the top 3 win a prize. We still danced on stage with the other winning contestants. 

Early the following morning we had signed up for a ColorWalk (the Color Run was over booked). It was basically a giant walk around Taichung Park, aka Goat park. We were mauled with color and then mauled by, well the best word would be, paparazzi. Dozens of large, elite cameras were shoved at us, while we posed and smiled, and quite frankly enjoyed the crazy flattery of it all. Besides being covered in color and sweat I felt as if we were walking the red carpet. Even some families were asking us to take pictures with their kids. 

The BEST part of the color walk was when we decided to go up near the music and the free water stand. Kelly sat on the ground, Britt shouts, "Let's do a rain dance around Kelly!" So the five or six of us still there start dancing and jumping around her while she begins her own seated dance, basically rolling her arms and upper body to the music. It became hilarious when about 15-20 large cameras and video cameras filmed us. The song ended and we struck a pose, which only added more cameras. It was surreal. 

Monday, October 28 we had our school Halloween. Due to all the variations of schedules, Monday is the only day every student meets with their English teacher. The first half of the day, the Yves (elementary) teachers each had a craft or game for the kindergarten classes to do. I chose the 'pom pom monsters.' The students actually had Styrofoam balls, then they glued eyes on and stuck in pipe cleaners for the hair, nose, and mouth.  I had about 12 minutes with each of the 5 kindy classes, except for Kelly's Hungry Caterpillars. Following there was a costume contest for scariest and most creative. 

In the afternoon, I did the same stations with my Stars and the rest of the Yves, grade 1-3. Late afternoon, my Evening Stars with Yves grade 4-6 played a dangerous balloon popping game. Balloons were rubber banded to everyone's feet, and after "ready, set, go" the last one standing with their balloon was the winner. We had enough balloons to play twice. Inside was candy and powder. 

Later in the week we had out first earthquake since being in Taiwan. I happened to be in the elevator at the time so it was a little frightening, although I didn't know it was an earthquake at the time. 

How is it November?! Over 4 months already, too many adventures, memories, laughs, and new friends to count. We were asked for the first time about resigning yesterday. 

On Saturday, Angela and I went to the National Palace Museum in Taipei. I was very proud of us for getting to the bus station in Taichung to Taipei, Taipei to the MRT, MRT to city bus, then to the museum. The outside was gigantic and beautiful. Mostly a pale green and a pale orange color. The entire place was split into two exhibits. We only did the exhibit 1 which had all the Chinese historical artifacts we wanted to see. Exhibit 2 is for monthly featured art, such as 'Leonardo- Mona Lisa-The Myths.' It was raining so we did not get many photos outside and no photos were allowed inside. 

The museum had 3 floors. We got to see writings, pottery, painting, sculptures, weapons, instruments, wine vases, snuff bottles, and a new world art exhibit. Snuff bottles, when popular, contained ground up tobacco usually combined with a rose, grape, or plum blossom fragrance. The lid had a small spoon attached where they could snort it off of. In the new world art exhibit they had electronic images of art from different Asians countries and they would teach you to say hello in their language. Further inside, there was more art you could interact with. A vase that copied your style, a movement monitor to create art, and a video game style object you could add yourself into. Of course we did them all and had a great time. 

Two of the teachers had birthday's the first weekend of November so we had a large party for them at Red Door. A "subdivision party." The girls set up a photo booth area with props that everyone added too. The Red Door gals decided it should be something that stays up all year!

I signed up for a half marathon that is just under 9 weeks away. Training has already begun. 

Two visitors have made it to Taiwan. Amy's best friend Mikayla, and Katie's boyfriend Travis. Last night, I went to the dangerously awesome night market with Amy, Steph, and Mikayla. I say dangerous because even if you're a penny pincher, you'll buy something every time you go to a night market! There are over 100 night markets in Taiwan!!

This Saturday is bungee jumping! I CAN'T WAIT!

--Thanks for reading! - K

Happy 48th birthday to my Beautiful Mama!

**If you have not seen Monsters University yet, it is a must see. Do it!