Mother's Day Activity

Look at these cute kids spending their Saturday morning with their moms or dad (if mom was unable to make it). It was Berhan's Chinese/English Preschool Mother's day activity. Unknown to the English teacher it was a big event. The Chinese school had been practicing songs for the last month. As you can see it was adorable. The only part I understood was "Ai Nee" aka Love You!



After the musical entertainment the student played games with their parents. The "games" consisted of activities such as the mom's pinning clothes pins onto their child and then their child shaking them off as they wiggled like the crazy kids we know them to be.

The scariest game by far (or at least I thought) was when we were given a long piece of nylon fabric. The parent and the English teachers held onto the length of the fabric while the secretaries hosted the kid up and they crawled across the fabric! I was praying the whole time that they I wouldn't let go that NO one would let go. Luckily no let go and everyone made it across. But the question remains. . . this is fun why?

Due to communication errors we, the English teacher, were less impressive when it was our turn to entertain the parents. That was the major error we thought we were entertaining the kids aka babysitting, not entertaining the parent by showing off their child newly acquired English skills. The only good thing is that graduation is just around the corner and we will redeem ourselves. The joys of communicating in a foreign country.

WULAI aka
Climbing on Mossy Ropes

We (Destiny, Sain and I) decided to get away from Feng Yuan this weekend. We head up to Wulia. It is a small town surrounded by hot springs, hiking trails and aboriginal history. Sain had been before and wanted to do a rope course. So we headed there first. We were doing well and having a good time. We did make a few discover about safety getting to the other side of each rope course.



Thinking we had learned our lesson we continued on the rope course having a blast but then things got iffy. It wasn't the best idea for all three of us to go across at the same time, as Sain pointed out in the above video. To bad we didn't listen to Sain because all three of us got stuck in the middle. I managed to pull myself across to the end platform and then helped Destiny and Sain get across.

Then, continuing with our brilliant ideas, we decided to crawl through a rope tunnel. It was fun but because we live on a tropical island. The rope were damp and covered in moss. It was gross and I think my pants will never be the same.

After cleaning up as well as we could we head back down the mountain. We decided to take a row around the lake we passed on our way up to the rope course. It looked very relaxing and picturesque. . .then we got on the lake. Once we were on the lake all chaos broke out. First, Destiny wanted to row. She can row but she is good at getting the person behind her wet. I should know I was the one getting wet. So Sain took over and it was a little questionable at first but she manged to pull it together and we laughed, fought and sang silly song all around the lake.

Conference, Cookies and TOILETS!

It was conference weekend and Destiny and I decided to watch Saturday Conference in Taichung. I had a pile of cookie boxes Megan asked me to pick up for her while I was in Korea. I still can't get over the fact that 5 years after the end of my mission we both ended up in Taiwan. It is a small world!

We had heard about a restaurant with a toilet theme. We had to check it out. Maybe this would help explain the often asked question, "Why is everyone in Taiwan obsessed with poop?" So after a wonderful Saturday session of Conference we head over to the toilet bowl restaurant.



The toilet bowl restaurant lived up to it name. We sat on toilet bowls, we eat off a tub and our food came to us in toilets and squatters. You could even buy a urinal for your drink, I let that one pass. Now do I understand the obsessions with poop, no but I can definitely appreciate the humor.

The SAD goodbye.

We went home. We thought about staying and not returning but decided to do the mature thing and come back. Destiny and I may have came back to Taiwan but we are both full of ideas of teaching in Korea. We will be back!

OUR LAST FULL DAY IN KOREA.

The time went so fast! We spent our last day visiting with Jeung-ah’s students. She teaches at a hagwan aka cram school. She has the cutest kindergarten class and a couple of bratty older classes. It was fun to hang out with those cute little Korean kids, who spoke a few word of English.

Once work was over we went out for one last night on the town in Korea. Destiny picked up her hombok which was beautiful. Then Chuang-ah wanted to get her hair done but not by herself. So she got a perm and I got Korean bangs. I like the bangs but what I really like was the head massage by the cute Korean boy who washed my hair. Destiny and I both agree he belongs on the cute Korean list. After the haircut I went around town trying to use up all my Korean money. I bought cute shoes, headband (for the new Korean hair cut) and sock. I love all the happy socks you can buy for a dollar in Korea.

Then we had our last dinner in Korean with
Juang-ah and Alice (her friend from work). We were head home the next day.

Church in Korea, once again. . .
We went to church Sunday morning and guess who was at the ward, the Daejeon Mission President, office couple, and office missionaries. They were giving a joint RS and Priesthood lesson. We started chatting with the office couple and found out that they were friends with the office couple (the Bonners) that serve in our Taichung branch. They were really excited and I took their name card to give to the Bonners since they had lost touch. I also enjoyed a few moments of understanding what was going on in Korean. It was nice. I'm glad we made it to church and didn't spend the night in Seoul.

After church we went to see the cherry blossoms. While we were in Korea the weather was perfect! I love spring weather and Korea was 6 days of beautiful spring. I've been asking to see the cherry blossoms since we got to Korea. Juang-ah was nice enough to drive around town so we could check them out. The street was crowded with family and friends with the same idea. We would jump out of the car take pictures and then run and catch up with Juang-ah. It was nice of her because she doesn't like to drive, traffic in Korea is a bit frightening.

Our next stop was to meet Juang-ah's family. Her sister took us out to dinner and her two girls came along. We also meet her brother-n-law, he couldn’t come because he had to run the family’s mart. He gave us free ice cream, yum. At first her nieces we quite and would just throw glaces at us. By the end of the afternoon they were climbing all over us and playing with us at the park next to the restaurant. They only sad part is that we didn’t take any picture with the girls!

Going to Seoul

Junag-ah bounced into our room bright and early and we got ready for the day. We had big plans shopping around Chuang-ju and then off to Seoul. We were planning to spend the night in Seoul. So we packed our backpacks and headed out. After eating breakfast of kimbop and dukbokee, I love KOREAN FOOD! The first offical purpose of the morning was to find and buy a hombok for Destiny. A hombok is a traditional Korean dress. We looked at quite a few homboks before Destiny decided on a pink one. The fabric was gorgeous but we would have to wait until Monday to see the finished products. Next stop was Seoul.

It took a couple of hours to get to Seoul. Once there we head over to a popular foreigner spot. It was fun but everything was expensive so Destiny and I didn't buy much. We did get to see a demonstartion on how to make duk (rice cakes). I always explain duk as being smashed up rice and it literal is smashed up rice. I'm smarter then I knew. Isn't that little girl have a great time.

Since I love Korean food there must be a side note about what we eat for lunch. We had bulgolgi for lunch and yummy kimchi. I love eating all the kimchi I want!!
After shopping we tried to find the Seoul temple. We were so close but we never did find it. At this point we were all getting tired and decided to find a hotel for the night. I was tired of carrying around my backpack. Here is a little side note about Korea. . . the have a lot of love hotel. You know the types of hotels that you rent by the hour and not by the night. Destiny and I were not sure that we wanted to stay in a love hotel. The dark entryway, the hidden counter and the wallpaper covered with huge red roses was just too much. We decided to head over to the 63rd building while we considered the love hotel options.Destiny loves Korean mini series. She has gotten me addicted to one called "My name is Kim Sam Soon." So I love them to or at least I learning to love them. I guess the popular spot to declare your love in a mini series is the top of the 63rd building. So we had to check it out. I had been there on my mission during the day but never at night. The view at night was amazing. I glad I went again.

At this point everyone was starting to get tired. We made the joint decision to see if we could catch the bus back to Chuang-ju. We had a sweet taxi driver who drove like mad and we managed to catch the late bus to Chaung-ju. We also grabbed a few snacks for dinner. The end of another day in Korea.