Traveling the world...literally

Over the past couple of weeks I have officially gone around the world.  No literally I have acquired over 18,000 frequent flyer miles (not counting all of my flying because I am an idiot and just signed up for miles), set foot in Hong Kong, Macau, Tokyo, Garner, Kaohsiung and Taipei.  Now I know what you are thinking, it must be really terrible to HAVE to travel to all these places, I REALLY have it hard.  Don't feel too much sympathy for me, I will let you in on a little secret, I kinda enjoyed it.  Here is a brief recap of all the adventures (I know I am going to leave something big out but there was just too much to remember).

Hiking Monkey Mountain

Leaving our mark on Kaohsiung

It all started with my dear, sweet, amazing friend Ana coming to visit.  We started out exploring Kaohsiung.  We had a great time walking around Lotus Lake, hiking up Monkey Mountain, getting a relaxing massage, going to a traditional fish market, getting lost on scooters and finding a ping pong/dance competition, and of course a true Kaohsiung Night Market experience.  After accomplishing more than any two people should ever be able to, we journeyed off to Hong Kong with John and Bruce as our protectors.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is my most favorite, ever in the world, city.  This place was truly incredible.  The people there were so international yet friendly.  There was great tourist activities, spectacular shopping and great night life.  Not to mention it is home to the worlds longest escalator (800m to be exact).  For the 4 days and 3 nights we were there we were on the go non stop, from visiting Victoria Peak, to stopping at H&M, to watching the light show across the harbor.  John and I even went to an Asian Game Convention (on Christmas Day).  It was an unforgettable trip.

While staying in Hong Kong we took a boat to Macau.  This is another country (you have to pass through immigration, thank goodness I am the genius of the group and made everyone take their passports) which is considered to be the Asian Vegas.  After getting off the boat, we hopped on a bus which took us to the Venetian.  There we gambled, caught a Cirque De Soleil show, ate a LOT, saw the Hard Rock Casino, all in one day.

View of the light show

Outside the Venetian

By the time we made it back to Kaohsiung we were all pooped!  Ana had 1 more day left on her journey so we took in a movie VIP style (think lay-z-boy, blanket, and wine at a regular movie theater).  Then sadly I had to bid Ana farewell.  I know I had one of the best times of my life with her here, I am sure she felt the same.  We were really living this great amazing life that a person could only dream of.  The experiences we had were once in a life time activities.

Macau

Love these girls

 I then had 1 day to pack and I was back on the plane heading to home sweet home.  I could hardly contain my excitement.  I was about to be able to cuddle up with my dear sweet Charlie, hug the rest of the family and just be able to relax in a place where I feel at home.  The 25+ hours of travel time were so worth in once I stepped off the last plane, saw mom jumping up and down, and was able to finally hug Mom, Dad, and Syd's necks.  The week I was at home flew by.  It seemed like I blinked and I was getting back on the plane to come to Kaohsiung.  I was so lucky to see so many wonderful friends, family, old students, and just realize how lucky I am to have so many people who I love and who love me in my life.  It was really hard to go back.  Seeing everything that I have back at home made me miss it even more.  This past couple of days here has been harder than any other time, but summer will be here before I know it and I will be back to the swing of things in N.C.  I mean where else can you set of fireworks right beside the house to a D.J. while sabering champaign bottles at midnight?  Or get a last meal of a chicken biscuit with green tomato and mac and cheese?

Who wouldn't miss him?!?!

Or fireworks like this?!?!

So after the time of my life, I am back, trying to get myself into the routine.  I am sleep deprived (or maybe just my sleep schedule is so far off from jet lag that I don't know what normal sleep is like).  I have flown around the world, had experiences of a lifetime, seen some amazing friends, family and loved ones (that would of course include Charlie) so getting back to the grind is going to be hard.  Good thing I have great people here to help me out with that.  It is the motivation for cleaning, laundry, exercise, planning for school and grad work that will have to come from somewhere deep inside, but isn't that always how it is when you travel around the world in less than 3 weeks?

Here is my first attempt at being normal.  I have to do something to loose the 10lbs I put on eating during this break!

One word to describe everything...AWESOME

New Teacher Family

This Thanksgiving started off really hard.  It was hard being away from family, hard not eating real turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, hard not sharing it with my friends from back home, hard being in a country where Thanksgiving is not something that is celebrated, and hard not being able to do some black Friday shopping.  Despite all of the hardships I encountered, this turned out to be an AWESOME weekend.

Since I teach at an American School, we get off for Thanksgiving, even if the rest of the island does not celebrate it.  This is said to be one of the best travel weekends in Taiwan for us Americans because of this.  People were making plans to go all over, but since I have been a busy bee lately I decided to lay low and see where the wind would take me.  I am so glad I did.  The only thing I committed to was a race (10k) in Taitung on Sunday.

Jennifer and Larissa cooking :) 

Wednesday night all of the "new teachers" had a Thanksgiving dinner together.  While we could not find turkey, we managed to find chicken and everyone else brought their version of Thanksgiving favorites.  It was not exactly the same as what I would have back in the states, but it was really close and was by far one of the best meals I have had here.  Not to mention, the feeling of family we created, made it all even better.  13 of us were crowded into a room sharing food, wine and friendship.  You could not ask for a better substitution for being home.

Thursday, being Thanksgiving was the toughest day.  I went to the gym, had brunch with Jennifer, then stayed at home catching up on my reading and sleep.  Not what I wanted to do for Thanksgiving but good all the same.

Outside of the hostel

Lobby of the hostel

Walk to the competition site

I got up Friday morning and headed to Taitung for a surf competition Lori's husband Keith was entering.  When I got to the train station I was told there were only standing room tickets.  I was silently cussing out the counter guy, but figured that is the best I could get so whatever.  I got on the train with about 20 students on a school trip.  After I had been standing for about 30 minutes, one of the little boys handed me a chocolate candy.  He could not speak English, I can't speak Chinese but we exchanged smiles and I said thank you.  Not long after a girl from the group offered me her seat.  Once I sat down, the awkward stares started, but I just smiled.  Then the girl took out a script for a play I think she was in.  It was in English and she wanted to show me.  She read me her parts, in English then motioned for me to read the whole thing.  As soon as I started, I had a crowd of 15 Taiwanese kids around me wanting to hear me read this play, laughing and having a great time.  After I was finished with the play, she handed me another book and we had story time for the rest of the ride.  When it was time for me to get off the train, we exchanged e-mail addresses, the kids took pictures with me and I said goodbye.  It was such a heartwarming experience and totally AWESOME!

Another image of the walk

The surf competition site

Lori and I 

Friday night I stayed in the small surfing town called Donghe with Lori and Keith.  There was literally a 7-11, 3 surf hostels, and a harbor there.  Nothing else.  When I arrived, Lori and I walked down to the competition site, which was breathtaking.  We headed back for dinner at the surf hostel we stayed in, then went to the hostel/bar down the road.  There we met some really cool people, namely Ry Craike, a pro Australian surfer Quicksilver flew in for the competition.  That was neat just hanging out and talking with him and his friends/entourage.  Saturday we got up, went to the competition site and stayed there most of the day.  The beach was beautiful and the people were so chill.   Keith ended up placing 12th in the competition so that was really AWESOME!

This is what the beach looked like

Beach on one side, mountains on the other!

Saturday night we headed into Taitung to another hostel we were staying in for the night to meet the 20 or so people from KAS who were running in the race.  We went out for pizza and headed back, hanging out and watching TV, making sure we got to bed early, after all we had to get up for the race at 6am.  The race Sunday was in this park located on the base of a mountain. Throughout the whole run there was a great view of the mountain line in the sky.  The weather was the prefect running weather, overcast with a little rain and slight chill in the air.  I was running the 10k, and not being thrilled about running or exercising, I was just wanting to finish.  I had dome a little training, but nothing extensive.  When the race started, I tried to find a good pace, listen to some tunes and get in the running zone.  To my surprise I ended up finishing 14th in my division with a time of 56.01.  Better than I ever thought I would do.  AWESOME.

This was the puppy at the hostel, too cute for words!

With hurting legs and sore muscles all over, I went to the train station to head home, this time with Jeff, a PE teacher at KAS.  My good luck at this point had run out because we got standing room only tickets yet again, (I think the train system here hates me) just what everyone wants after running a race, Jeff even did the half marathon.  To make the trip a little more bearable, we went to 7-11 got some wine and waited it out with pizza and the wine.  We ended up finding "seats" in between 2 train cars by the engine.  Due to the fumes coming up from the floor boards, we rode most of the way with the train doors open, looking out at the scenery in Taiwan.  I felt like a hobo, or someone in the circus.  2 bottles of wine and a couple drinking games later we were home.  Once again an AWESOME adventure.

This weekend was an experience.  Looking back I can not believe all the things I got to see and do, life is AWESOME!

America, with a little Taiwan thrown in!

Tonight was one of the first nights where I kinda, just a little bit, felt like I was back in the states (and yes I say the states now after living overseas for just a couple of months).  I have had the times where I am sitting in a bar watching football and thought it felt like home, then I look at my watch and see it is way too late for anyone to be out, or I am watching either the game that was on 2 days ago and I already know the score.  I also look down at my drink and realize I am drinking a Taiwan Beer or Bar Beer (the only two options) not an Amstel Light, Blue Moon, or even a Budweiser, and I am quickly reminded I am not in North Carolina anymore.  But tonight it was like I clicked my ruby red slippers 3 times repeating, "There is no place like home," and I was transported via tornado to Raleigh.

Movie Theater Meal...take special notice of
the doll that was a part of the package...I think it is supposed to be Bella. 

Being as big of a Twilight fan as I am, my first real true fictional love was Edward Cullen just ask anyone who knew me while I was reading the books they will tell you I was crazy for him, I had to see Breaking Dawn part 1.  After much talk, and even more of that convincing southern charm people here seem to not be able to turn down, I talked Erin into going to the movies with me (she had not even seen the 3rd movie so there really is something to be said for the sweet country accent).  We left work, got on the MRT and headed to the movie theater that happened to be on the 13th-17th floors of a mall.  It is one of two theaters which plays movies in English.  We waited in line, got the "oh crap here are some Americans" look from the man at the counter, pantomimed our way through buying 2 movie tickets, 2 popcorns, 2 hot dogs and 2 drinks for $800 NT (the equivalent of $26 US dollars).  Then we rode the escalators up 2 more stories and arrived at our movie theater.  While I know this does not sound very "American" the rest of the experience (besides the cute, everything here can be categorized as cute, cartoon band blobs that reminded everyone to turn off their phones) was exactly that.

We watched the movie, enjoying the the sights of both shirtless Jacob and Edward, swooned at the wedding and cringed through the birth of the baby (I hope I have not spoiled the movie for anyone. If so, really sorry, but you should see it, really great).  While sitting in the theater I forgot I was in another country.  Even when I felt like I was going to throw up because of the hot dogs and was looking for my popcorn bag to barf in since I was obviously not missing any of the action (It turns out I was fine, the blood and needles got to me.  Sorry again if I spoiled anything!) it felt like home.  The lights came on after the movie was over and I felt like I would be walking out into the cool North Carolina weather.  It was only when I realized everyone was staring at Erin and I as we were leaving that it hit me, I was in Taiwan.  But that feeling of home felt so nice if only for just a couple hours.

To make things even better tonight, I saw my first Christmas decorations.  Real, commercialized decorations outside the Hanshin mall on the walk home.  There was a Santa, gingerbread men, candy canes, lights and ornaments, with a big Merry Christmas sign above the winter wonderland.  These are the only Christmas decorations I have seen since I have been here.  Automatically I was singing Christmas Carols in my head, and maybe out loud a little bit.  "Oh the weather outside is fightful, but the fire is so delightful.  And since we've no place to go, let it snow, let is snow, let is snow."

This just goes to show, no matter where you are, you are never far away from home!

Just dance

Dance Practice

So in typical Whitney fashion I came up with a grand idea to hold a flash mob at the schools fun fair.  I knew I would be able to convince some of the staff to join in on this adventure, so I used my southern charm and had an overwhelmingly positive response.  Almost all of the staff were willing to participate so John, Larissa and I started to plan this fun moral booster which was a HUGE success. We preformed it this past weekend and all the kids, parents, and everyone else in attendance loved it.  I am so proud of what we accomplished, choreographing, executing and just having a fabulous time together.  We even managed to get together at Lori and Keith's the night before for a last practice/dinner/drinks.  As soon as I have a good video clip I will be sure to post it.  Until then I will keep you all in anticipation, or you can check it out one on my facebook page.

Flash Mob

Temple at the Lake

Also this week I was able to take a group of students to Lotus Lake near the school to film some footage for a project they were participating in called One Day on Earth (check out the link here http://www.onedayonearth.org/).  Basically it is a project that was started to show what one full day around earth looked like.  People from all different countries filmed what life was like for them on 11/11/11 to be placed into this documentary.  Our 9th graders split into groups, went around campus and places close to school to film their day, in hopes to be considered. I have not seen the video footage they came up with yet, but I am sure it is going to be amazing.  While I was chaperoning, I took the opportunity to play around on my phone camera and came up with some of the following shots.  These are things I get to see every day walking to and from school.  I am a really lucky person, not just because I walked into the Dragon mouth and out of the Tiger Mouth (it is supposed to bring people luck) but also because I get to see these sights on a daily basis.

View Looking up at the Dragon Temple

The Lion and Dragon from behind

The Ramp leading up to the Lion and Dragon Temples

Look down from inside the Dragon Temple

Words of a child..

I gave my kids an assignment to choose 10 events that have shaped their lives to this point and write about them in a book.  After realizing this was my favorite project I have ever given in my 6 years of teaching, I had to share some of the wisdom they came up with.  They are motivating words to live by!

Imagination is not a dark power.  It is magic.  You can practice it anywhere.  The best of imagination is that everyone has the power to do it.  Every person can perfect the skill.   ~Grace Chuang

In the stories, everyone gets along in the end.  What’s wrong with learning from the stories and doing that in real life?             ~Grace Chuang

I don't want to grow up, a child is always happier than an adult. Children can play and have imaginations, adults do the same thing everyday, it really scares me.            Eric Hsu

As for me, I’m the weird girl that takes too many pictures and laughs too much, because life comes with no guarantees and no second chances.            ~Annie Yang

Enjoy the little things in our lives, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.            ~Annie Yang

Life is just like that.  It has ups and downs, but it’s out choice to scream or enjoy the ride.            ~Annie Yang

The land of Oz is where I place my heart.

Memories are what nourish my soul.

That month,

I’ve learned a lot,

I laughed.

Oh,

How I laughed.

Sadly,

Things must end.

Oh,

How I cried.

Down and under is where my heart rests.

High and up is where my memories remain.

Kangaroo hops in my mind,

It jumps up so high I can touch the sky,

It comes down so low I can smell the dirt.

The surging tide upsets my mind.

It pushes my desires alive,

Yet the undercurrent,

Pulls me back to the reality.

I crumbled,

Australia is beckoning.                         ~Claire 

And last but not least from my favorite thinker...

We are all a little weird and life is a little weird,

And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours,

We join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.  

~Dr. Seuss

Don't go diving in Australia, there are sharks

Apologies first for not keeping up with this blog very well.  I feel as though this is the first weekend I have had to sit down and wrap my head around the events in my life.  These past couple of weeks have been filled with school work, grad school work, volleyball tournaments, and scuba certification classes.  While I am thrilled I have accomplished so much in such a short time, I need a break!  ASAP!

School here is moving along as usual.  In celebration of Halloween (and we are probably one of the only schools in Taiwan who celebrate it because we are an American school) the Student Council sponsored a scary movie night.  I never thought I would be in charge of/chaperone a night where over 100 teenagers get together at school, turn all the lights off and watch The Ring and Paranormal Activity, but I did.  The whole time I was thinking "This would never fly in the states," and "I hope I don't scream out loud!" :)  Other than that event, school has been just like school everywhere else...too much work and not enough time to complete it all.

Last weekend I took my Volleyball girls to our tournament at another American school just on the outskirts of Kaohsiung.  I am proud to say my 6th graders got a solid 4th place out of 4 teams.  They are amazing, I know...they were more worried with having time to play on the playground than hitting the ball.  Just imagine orange cones with arms...that would be 75% of my team.  Oh well...my competitive spirit had to be suppressed.  Softball is coming up next, these girls, from what I have been told are natural athletes, which will be a welcome change.

Keith and Zach at the dive center

The Hostel

Now on to the good stuff.  Over the past 3 weekends I have been going down to Kenting getting my scuba certification.  I am now officially open water certified!  I can go diving anywhere in the world, but as my mother told me, "Don't go diving in Australia right now, they are having problems with sharks."  It took 3 LONG days to accomplish this.  I completed the course with Zach and Keith, no one else wanted to come along, I don't understand why this was the coolest thing I have done so far in my life.  We started the first day diving in the pool at the center.  There we just got comfortable with the equipment, skills, strategies and survival techniques incase something were to go wrong.

The Scuba site

We spent the night in a hostel at the dive center, which was my first hostel experience.  Different yet, tons of fun.  The next day we took our first dive in the ocean.  It was amazing.  There is a whole new world (thanks Little Mermaid) down there.  The reefs and fish were mind blowing.  I knew this is something I wanted to do for the rest of my life.  After cleaning the equipment, we headed back to Kaohsiung on a diving high ready to get our last dives in the next weekend.  The last dives went flawlessly, our instructor even told us we were his best students!  Now I have my PADI card and can go diving wherever I want (except Australia because mom says so) .  While it was a lot of work, it was such a great accomplishment.

All the equipment 

Now I am about to put on my swim suit and my flippy floppies and head to the beach.  It is a beautiful, sunny day that can simply not be wasted.

Spending the holiday in "style"

The beautiful Island

This weekend was 10/10, the Taiwanese independence day.  Since I am sure you can all assume I love a good independence day, after all the fireworks are for me, I was super excited for my extra day off school and weekend trip to Green Island.  From the time we planned this trip, all I heard from others who had been was how great this place was, how beautiful and relaxing this trip was going to be and what a good time we are going to have.  I can agree to 1.5 out of the 3 statements.  We had a good time and I think it is beautiful but this weekend could be considered a disaster!

The infamous boat

To start off, I totally overslept, missed the train with everyone and was forced to, on my own, make my way to the east side of the island by train and boat.  The train was full and the only seat I could get was standing room only...so I stood by the bathroom for 2+ hours to get to Taitung.  Once in Taitung I had to get to the boat to take me to Green Island.  The only issue was I had to get to the boat from the train station in 15 minutes or I would miss the last boat out for the night...Jennifer in her wonderful Chinese told the cab driver this and I was off for the scariest cab ride of my life!  My life was literally flashing before my eyes, but I made it!  The boat ride was interesting to say the least...they have barf bags at every chair and many people (like half the boat) needed to use it.  Gross!  I just put in my iPod and went to sleep hoping not to catch the bug.

John, Jennifer and I

Once I arrived to Green Island, I was greeted by my wonderful friends on scooters, we were so Taiwanese and had to ride with 3 on a scooter ;)  Not to mention the fact that I brought the rain with me.  From the time I got there until the time I left it was a downpour.  We were not going to let that stop us though!  We rode around the island getting pelted with rain, soaking wet, trying to do everything.

For dinner Saturday night we had a traditional Taiwanese barbecue...don't get your hopes up, this was complete with chicken heart, pigs blood, fish pancakes, and numerous other things which I don't even know what they are.  I stuck with the chicken (I think).  Later that night we went to these natural hot springs Saturday night expecting to have a perfect relaxing time, it was FREEZING and of course we picked the only hot spring that was not hot.  Our clothes were soaking wet by the time we left we were miserable.  We ended up in a pool by ourselves...at first we thought no one wanted to be around the Americans...but it turns out that was the only hot spring that was lukewarm...we were the stupid ones who did not put two and two together and move to the ones where everyone else was.

Hotsprings

After leaving the hotspring, we rode home in the downpour on the scooters, jumped in hot showers and went to sleep on the brick hard mattresses.  Upon waking up in the morning, we unanimously decided over breakfast to cut the trip short and head back to Kaohsiung.  After rearranging all of the tickets, we rode around on the island in the scooters trying to see as much as we could, after all at this point my hands had been pruned for about 24 hours so what was a little more water?  The island really was as beautiful as people said.  Absolutely breathtaking in some places.  I really can not wait to visit in nicer conditions.

7 hours later, 1 boat ride (where no one got sick, score), a train ride (where we all got seats) we made it back safe and sound!  Despite everything, I had a great time.  The people I was with made it all worth it.  They are incredible, positive, up-beat and just a ton of fun to be around.  I am so blessed.