I found a church!!!

Before coming to Taiwan I was a little worried about what I was going to do about weekly masses. I had already talked to my priest back home and he gave me a book of prayers and the parts of the mass in English in case I ended up having to go to mass in Chinese regularly, but truth be told, I was just worried about finding a Catholic church period! Most of Taiwanese practice Taoism or Buddhism with less than 5% of the population practicing Christianity (let alone Catholicism!) Needless to say, I wasn't 100% sure what I was going to end up doing for the year.

As I continued to research I discovered that there were a decent handful of Catholic churches in the larger towns (aka, not mine!) and some of them even claimed to offered mass in English!! I was determined that I was going to find one! Fast forward to Saturday morning, I was looking online for what I could find (side note, I'm not sure what people did traveling before the internet! lol) and found a large Catholic Cathedral that offered mass in English twice on Sundays!! Downside, google maps claims it will take me almost 2 hours by bus to get there...I'm all about going to church, but that's a lot of travel time.

I was determined to find something better! I continued my research and found that there is actually one in my town! (I live like 2 miles outside of the town of Xinfeng although my address is still technically in Xinfeng). Excitedly I hoped on the bus (and surprisingly even knew which stop to get off on!) and in less than 10 minutes I was at the church!!! To my surprise it was not only a Catholic church, but also a Catholic school! It took me a little bit to actually locate the church...you'll see why momentarily!...but when I did I couldn't have been any more excited!

The church is TEEENY and sits about 100 people although we packed that baby church to the point that there was standing room only! I had to giggle to myself though, out of the 100 or so people in attendance, all were Asian (mostly Filipino) besides myself and the priest from Africa! Needless to say it was great to find mass in English, and I look forward to going back again!

A Little Bit of Chicken Fried

Hi, my name is  Tracy...and I LOVE food! Now I'm  not saying that I love food simply because I need food to eat, or I have several favorite foods...no, I'm saying I love food simply because eating is one of my favorite  past times! What could be better than thoroughly enjoying something that you have to do?!?! (disclaimer:  it is 11:00pm here and I've had a long day, please don't judge me for my corny writing and love of food at this hour!)

Now that I have my heart on the table ;) I'm sure it has become obvious one of the many reasons I was so excited to move to a foreign country for a year...a whole year of new foods! Of course I had eagerly and extensively research the Taiwanese cuisine before hopping on that god awful long plane ride, but nothing, and I mean NOTHING, could have prepared me for what the spontaneous side of me decided to do Thursday evening.

If that video wasn't quite graphic enough...I know I get the heebie jeebies just watching it over again, I'll tell you...I.ate.chicken feet. CHICKEN FEET. Like that animal that I don't even like to eat if it has bones or skin still on it and I decided to pick up one of it's boney and scaly legs and take a big ole bite out of it!

Now to be honest, this video is bite #2...there was some disbelief among the spectators that called for a second bite. But now the honestly is going to really poor out. I was dreading this. I thought they looked gross, felt even grosser, and the concept of eating an animals feet made me a little squeamish...BUT, they weren't that bad. {i said it} the chicken feet were  not that terrible. Imagine you were a dog and your owner just gave you one of those big rubber chickens to play around with...yeah that's pretty much where this poor guy's leg ranked, somewhere between part chicken and part rubber. I'm not saying that I'm going to sit down and gnaw on some chicken legs in lieu of my popcorn while I'm watching TV (I swear they told me that was common here!), but if my life depended on it...I'd take another bite!

Bathroom Woes

Yes you read that right...and you are correct in assuming that this will be a post all about my bathroom usage...ok so not so much about "usage", but possibly more about experiences.

I will start you off with a story...one of those that I'm sure the friends I have made here won't let me live down! Tory (one of the other girls from Ohio that will be teaching in Taiwan) and I were walking around the campus we are staying at this week and decided we both needed to use the restroom. We found a public women's bathroom on the campus and thought that we knew what we were doing (after all, using the bathroom isn't rocket science...or at least I didn't think so yet at this point in the story!)
Upon entering the bathroom we quickly discovered that the handicapped bathroom was the only "western" bathroom and the rest were "slightly more Asian" we can say for now. We decided we just needed to pee and weren't in the mood for an adventure so we would take turns using the handicapped stall. When it was my turn I went in the stall and did my business, reached up, and pushed the red button to flush the toilet. Just a simple side note here {THE RED BUTTON IS THE EMERGENCY CALL BUTTON!!!} needless to say, the red button did not flush the toilet, it did though have the ability to produce the most ear-splitting siren that could be heard throughout the entire campus! After waiting it out a couple of minutes (and discovering that if this were in fact an actual emergency that no one would come help you!) we decided to leave the premiss like it wasn't some "dumb American" who had set off the toilet alarm!

 Needless to say, when I have used the restroom outside of my dorm room since then, I have began to practice the art of using one of these bad boys!

I AM IN TAIWAN!!!

I made it!!!!! There was much hauling of luggage, last minute packing, checking flight schedules, and even some tears; but after 36 hours of traveling, I am in Taipei!

I left Ney, Ohio at 4AM Saturday and with the 12 hour time difference and 19 hours of airtime, I didn't land in Taiwan until almost 8PM  on Sunday!

Bedtime for me now, it's only Sunday afternoon at home, but it's almost 1AM on Monday here so it's time for me to crash!  Thanks for the prayers, support, and well wishes.....my adventure begins NOW!

Well This Looks Like Fun!

What's more fun than waking up early knowing that your daily agenda includes sorting through and packing your most {necessary} 100 lbs. of belongings?!?

Waking up to an email with reassuring me that I will have transportation home from the airport on Sunday even if my plane is delayed because of the typhoon. EXCUSE ME WHAT?!?!

Yes, I was anticipating "different" weather in Taiwan....I was not expecting a typhoon to greet me at Taiwan's doorstep though! Crossing my fingers and saying a prayer that this storm passes with little effects to my travels or to the people currently in Taiwan.

Check this guy out!