What's the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you?

We've all had this questioned asked of us before. I've never had a really good answer. You want the answer to be some funny story that will make everyone laugh. It can't be too embarrassing and it can't be too common place. I feel I now have the perfect response to this question.

On Friday I was working with Emma. I tutor her for the first hour every morning. We have had our ups and downs together but lately it has been really good. She actually plays with me most days. I can't really remember what happened but I had to reprimand her for trying to hit me. This upset her and she started her fake, whine, cry. She has started really wanting to be held by me.  I was across the room so I went over to pick her up. Now, most days I wear a skirt or flowy pants so I am not used to restrictions. Today I was wearing real pants. My squatting to pick up Emma was a little too much for them to handle. Sure enough they split from the top of my pants all the way down my leg.

I had to walk all the way across campus to get back to my office and students stare at me anyways so it was a long walk. Rob had a good laugh and we were able to walk home and get a change of clothes. I guess that's one more pare of pants I don't have to worry about packing home :)

Photo Time

One of the things I love most in Taiwan is our scooter rides. I see so many awesome things that I hope I can remember in the future. It's really hard to take pictures while on the scooter mainly because I want to take pictures of people and that's kind of not really kosher with everyone. Although, we do have people that take pictures of us because we're the freaky white people :) I did manage to be super sneaky and snap this photo of a family of four on a scooter. This is pretty normal and I've really wanted a picture of it to show everyone.

Just in case you can't tell in the next picture that there is boy in the front. 

No big deal. 

Calculated Consumption

If any of you have made a big move you know the idea of "calculated consumption" and how it really affects your life. Rob and I now have just a smidgen under two months left in Taiwan. I don't know if Rob really has started to think of this, but every time I open our fridge or our cupboard or even getting ready in the morning I start to think if I need to cut back using an item so it'll make or if I should consume more of it so I don't have to worry about taking it home.

Most of the food we eat is produce and we get it weekly/biweekly from the market so that is not a big deal, but we do have some big items such as rice, oatmeal, noodles etc. I also think of shampoo and tooth paste. I must be a lunatic. Obviously we have limited space so I don't want to take back things like  a half full bottle of lotion, but I don't want to waste it. Here goes using all that lotion (i'm not a big lotion user so it'll be a challenge). Luckily, we are leaving behind most of our clothes so we should have some space to take back some fun items.

Maybe you can tell but I am getting excited to move back to the US. I will really miss living here but there are somethings that I really miss. Family. Friends. Seeing the stars. Camping anyone?

The Date is Set

Rob and I bought tickets last night for our trip home. We will be flying into the Salt Lake City Airport at 4:15 pm on July 10th. We are very excited to see family and friends in America, but it is a little bitter sweet. We hope to see you all soon after that.

I'm Singing!!

Sometimes I really love our students here. There is an English singing competition this week where each of the participating classes chooses a song in English to sing in front of some judges. It has been great because I teach 3 of the 13 classes, and they have shown me their numbers. Did I mention they are choreographed? Oh yes. Thinking back on my high school days I don't know if my teachers could've got the boys in my classes to not only sing every word to the song but dance as well, but everyone does here. I love watching how serious they are about it too. In a school of 10,000 students I am sure it is hard to be in sports and stand out in something, but they really work hard in the competitions they do and I get so proud of them. Too bad watching them means I get the song "You Don't Know You're Beautiful" stuck in my head. They love the pop music here.

Dining Out

We have a friend from our ward named Jason. He likes to take us places and show us new things. He speaks some English and expects us to speak/read a little Chinese too. Rob does really well but I don't really get a lot of what he says. We have really appreciated him taking us places and introducing us to new restaurants and things. Food in Taiwan is pretty cheap so we've enjoyed eating at places for about five dollars to feed all of us. We usually go to "ice" afterwards, which is Taiwanese desert with shaved ice, tapioca balls, taro, sweet potato, beans and a sweet syrup on top. It has grown on us and we both really like it now.

The place he took us last weekend was a little different though. We weren't quite prepared for how nice or how expensive it would be. Jason has made it pretty clear that he thinks we are rich for some reason. He has some confused ideas of America. We ended up paying for the meal with almost all of the money we had, about $50. I think I had about a dollar left. Everything is cash here. Jason used a free meal card he got from his sister. Classy. Here is a picture to show you how we were dressed and how nice the place is. This little Buddha statue was super cool and it is all one piece of wood.

Chinglish

I should have been posting these all along. Here are some gems that we see all the time. 

The Court Yard

I have just recently thought about taking more pictures of the things that we see everyday. Time has flown by and we are only a few months away from leaving. I don't want to forget the things that we see daily so I'm going to try and take pictures of the somewhat insignificant things that I love. One of these things being the court yard at our apartment complex. I think it is lovely. Having plants in containers is a big thing here. A lot of people have plants in the court yard and the gardens are well kept. There is also some playground equipment for the kids to play on. It is one of my favorite things, when we walk home, to see the kids playing because they always want to talk to the Americans. They will run after us saying hello. They don't really know anything else except for one girl who always says, "I'm Bella," no matter what we say. She's adorable.

The aerial view from our apartment on the 11th floor

They even have two statues on either side of the yard. 

I thought this was funny. Just in case people forget what year it is according to our calendar.
It's year 103 according to the Taiwanese calendar. 

Chilling at the Cafe

Rob and I like to relax at the local "cafes". I put them in quotation marks because they are just tables outside of a convenience store. It might sound lame but it is a nice place to grab a little treat and people watch for a while. I think it's fun to see the scooters drive by and observe the differences between Taiwanese and American culture. One night I was able to snap a picture of this wonderful old man. He just took off his shoes and put his feet up on the table. I felt a little more conscious about how dirty the tables were, but mostly I thought how wonderfully at home this man looked.