Taichung Flower Festival

Flowers Galore!

This past weekend Tina and I ventured back down south to Taichung thanks to the recommendation of a friend in my Chinese class to check out their 2015 International Flower Festival. Oh my goodness was it breathtaking!

When they call this a "Flower Carpet Festival" they aren't kidding, the ground is completely covered in flowers (ok and mud too if you go after it rains!) I have never seen SOoo many flowers before! We headed down Saturday morning, checked into our hostel, grabbed some food {I apologize, when I write about my days I realize how often I do this in a day...I  think I like to eat!} and hoped on the nearly hour shuttle ride headed for the festival. We weren't quite sure what we were expecting, but were certainly glad when we got there!

Seriously, as far as you could see...there were flowers!

I was madly in love with these friends! {if I had even an ounce of a green thumb in me I'd be planting some of these guys!}

Turkey Day Taiwan Style!

Happy Thanksgiving from good old Hsinchu, Taiwan!

Hoping you and your families had the most blessed of days and didn’t forget to throw in an extra thank you (or 20) throughout your day! If you take the time to truly look around it is absolutely amazing how much God has given each and every one of us to be thankful for!

Now trust, I realize, that they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in Taiwan…shoot, most people don’t even have any idea what it is, but that doesn’t mean that this American girl went through the day without a little turkey and Macy’s Day parade!

The last 2 weeks I have been teaching my students about thanksgiving…in the most BASIC form possible! I’m not kidding, part of my presentation included “bye-bye England…Hello America” haha…like I said BASIC! We also talked about traditions, foods we eat, watched the parade & crazy shoppers, and thought of all the things we have to be thankful for!

I’m all about numbers, so here’s a little Turkey Day breakdown for you!

13 – times I re-watched the 2014 Macy’s Day parade

46 – the number of Thanksgiving day pop-up cards we made

5 – the number of plates I had of thanksgiving food! {eating is a sport right?!)

11 – the number of American’s that made it to our Thanksgiving dinner!

1,354 – the number of times I had to repeat the word  PILGRIM  for the children to understand how to pronounce the word!

Also, some misconceptions that I dispelled during classes…we do not eat TURTLES for Thanksgiving, papaya pie is not served at the table, and the big bowl of fluffy stuff is neither rice nor mashed sandwiches but rather mashed potatoes! Haha oh the ESL classroom!

Turkey Day group! William, RJ, Tina, myself, Matthew & baby Jacob, Ruth, Tory, Rebecca, Glen, & Angie.

THEN, to make Thanksgiving even better, we found out the Sheraton in Hsinchu was having Turkey on their buffet Thursday night…cue in 11 excited Americans and a solid 3 hours of eating, and we all left more happy and Thankful than  we would have thought possible! I’m telling you, I had turkey, mashed potatoes, salad, cheese {these last 2 are difficult to find here!}, pumpkin pie, chocolate cake…oh my goodness, delicious! (And thank goodness for flowy shirts at Thanksgiving!)

Don't know what I'd do without these girls in Taiwan!

Next up, let the Christmas celebrations begin!

Chinese Classes!

"It's not difficult!"

...or at least that's what my professor likes to tell us...always followed by a hearty "jia you" {or you can do it, in Chinese} ...I'm pretty sure she realizes that learning this is near impossible!

I'm not sure exactly what state of mind I was in, or better question yet, where my mind was at all! when I decided to enroll in the local National Chiao Tung University for Chinese classes, but that's where I find myself every Monday night. 

When I walked across the stages with my Master diploma this past May I was happy with my accomplishments, but swore off any more schooling for several years {or possibly ever!}...granted I had said the same thing when I finished my undergrad only 3 years before...But, here I am, less than 4 months later...working on Chinese homework. 

If I didn't want to make matters even worse...I had the choice between two different classes being offered: Conversational Chinese  (speaking & listening) or Introductory Chinese (speaking, listening, reading && writing), and what do you think my smart self chose....yeah, let's just saying reading & writing Chinese is just as difficult as one would image {times 50!}.

Introductory Chinese here I come!

I'm about half way through my course right now, and although my grades may not be the best evidence, I am actually learning some of this stuff! It only took my professor, 2 work books, a handwriting book, 2 separate apps, && a deck of flash cards to learn how to count to 10 {remember, it's not difficult! lol} But no, on a serious note, I'm loving this!

I mean, I wrote this...and I can actually read it too! 

Though the class  is tough and there's days I feel like its all gibberish {oh wait!} I am learning some...slowly but surely! I get a secret thrill each time my professor writes something on the board and I know what the sentence says, or I can read a character or 2 on a street sign, or I finished a page of homework ALL in Chinese, or I can read my train schedule without waiting for the English menu to pop up...I'm telling you, it's coming, s-l-o-w-l-y but surely! 

Tuesday Taiwan-ism {no drinks?!}

So this one has taken some getting used to, and to be quite honest, I  still tend to lean towards the "western customs" on this particular topic.

Lunches here {for the most part!} are great and I've enjoyed getting to try so many new foods during my daily lunches (if you missed my previous post on lunches you can check it out here), but the strangest part, is that there is never a drink served with lunch! In the US the kids typically get a choice between white milk, chocolate milk {and the lucky duck kids maybe even strawberry milk & orange juice!} but here in Taiwan, a drink during lunch, or any meal for that matter, is not so typical.

Instead of a drink the children are ALWAYS given a broth based soup. It might have meat, fish, or veggies in it as well...but always soup!

Some days the soup might be served cold and other days it might be a sweeter soup, but for the most part, their soups are broth based with various cooked veggies in it & this substitutes the drink that children in the US would typically get for lunch.

Although some days I do venture and try the soup {it's nearly impossible for me to know what's in them though!} I do have my trusty water bottle by my side during my lunch period as well...a little western fusion at its finest!

Monday Morning Prayer

This little prayer card has traveled great distances with me lately (both literally and figuratively lol). Back in April when I found out I was accepted to my teaching program in Taiwan I was also attending a 3 week prayer class of sorts where we talked about the many different ways you can pray. One of the nights I was given this prayer card  and the 3rd verse jumped out to me and gave me goose bumps. At that point in my life I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do; or more importantly what God wanted me to do, and this verse couldn't have shouted my name any  more loudly.

"May you meet life's adventures with a clear mind and a bold heart." 

I was beyond upset when I arrived to Taiwan and couldn't find the prayer card that I had made SURE to keep out when packing my house. Low and behold, about 3 weeks after moving here I opened up  my Taiwan travel guide and this little card flutters out...it was meant to make it here :) 

It's been on my mind lately and I thought I'd share it and maybe it'd speak to someone else as well! Happy Monday my friends, have a terrific week!