We only had a couple of days in Melbourne and we spent the first day walking around the core of the city.  The city had a lot of older buildings mixed in with newer modern buildings. That night we ate dinner at Jamie Oliver’s restaurant – Fifteen.  It was really yummy and nice inside!  The next day we did some shopping and took the trolley around the city to see different areas.  It was a fairly relaxed time in Melbourne.

Our next stop was Ayer’s Rock or Uluru (the aboriginal name).  We stepped off the plane to have flies attacking our face.  I had read that the flies try to get the moisture out of the eyes and mouth.  It was crazy!! We were staying at the Ayer’s Rock Resort – the only place to stay.  They built a resort for the tourism industry – with a wide array of hotels ranging from $80 a night to $1000 a night.  We stayed in the lower priced ‘dormitory’ option and basically camped for the two nights we were there.  For most of the time we were in Uluru it was raining….and cold.  Now Uluru is in the middle of the desert….we were a little surprised that’s for sure! Our first night we signed up for an astronomy tour – since it is in the middle of the desert away from all the light pollution you can see a lot more than in the city.  Our second day was spent wandering around the resort – there wasn’t much to do in our dorm room as we waited for our sunset tour. We started off in the rain and we were told that the rain is a sight to see – as it doesnt rain very often. We went out to Kata Tjuta (the Olga’s) first and all of the tour guides were talking about never seeing rain cascade off the rocks – reassuring us that being in the rain was great.  We started on the base walk and it started to spit about halfway through.  We decided to keep trekking.  It rained harder and harder and mini streams started to develop, and then – the water started cascading off of the rocks.  On our way back we saw tour guides running to see the water and had to cross huge flows of water.  We finally got onto the bus and we were the last people (and the wettest) back to the bus. The rest of our tour was kind of uncomfortable (and cold!) we went back early as there was no hope seeing the sunset on the rock.

Our next stop was Cairns, to much more humid weather! We stayed in a gorgeous hotel and did some souvenir shopping along the strip.  The main reason for going to Cairns was to go out on the Great Barrier Reef.  My mom was reading in the hotel about cyclone procedures as I joked that we wouldnt need to worry about it….  I was wrong.  The cyclone was still far off the coast and wasn’t suppsoed to hit Australia until after we left.  BUT it was turning the seas pretty good and the wind was not making for ideal boating conditions – especially for my mom who is seasick on calm water.  We decided to play it by ear and did a lot of walking around and shopping in the first couple of days.  Nearing the end of our 5 days in Cairns we had to make a decision if we wanted to go out.  We talked to a few tour agencies and they were being assured that boats were still going out.  Now these boats ranged from 30-600 people on each boat – at $300-500 p/p.  That’s a crap load of money they would be turning down for some waves.  Instead of  the reef we went into the Rainforest on the scenic railway.  It was pretty interesting, and we ended up going to a rainforest wildlife park….where I pet a Kangaroo! The next day we went to the Rainforest dome across from our hotel – and I held a Koala! I got a picture with the Koala but ended up forgetting it in the hotel room when we left later that day . We caught an early flight to Sydney to spend 8 hours before we got on our long flight to Honolulu!

I’ll leave it there and you can look at pictures on fb.  I’ll try and write a blurb about Hawaii as soon too!

I left off arriving in Bangkok after a crazy bus ride from Cambodia, a huge crazy market and meeting up with Tarcy.  The rest of our short time in Bangkok was spent getting duped by tuk tuk drivers and ‘gate attendants’.  There is a scam in Bangkok that tells you that the exhibit you are wanting to see is closed for a few hours – and they tell you to come back at a certain time.  They shove you into a tuk tuk to take you to a discount suit maker or other things and then bring you back for a low low price! It took me a few minutes to realize that we were being scammed and we jumped out of the tuk tuk within the next block.  This is basically how things worked in Thailand….everyone was there to rip you off.  I really didnt like dealing with tuk tuk drivers and decided to pay a taxi driver instead of getting ripped off left, right and centre.  I wasn’t impressed to say the least, and it really put a damper on my experience in Bangkok.  Ok – enough ranting – we ended up seeing the emerald palace and the reclining buddah, we took a tour of Kao Sahn Rd (big back packer area) and saw a movie in the fanciest movie theatre I’ve ever been in.

On February 24th we boarded a flight to Chiang-Mai – the second largest city in Thailand.  It certainly didnt look like a large city, and was a lot calmer and easier to get around.  Our main reason for going to Chiang-mai was to visit the Elephant Nature Park.  This park was established in the 1990′s and the founder (a local Thai woman) has made a sanctuary to rehabilitate  elephants and take them out of abusive owner’s hands.  There are now over 30 elephants in the park, each with their own sad story, and each day volunteers come in and see how the organization works and help out for the day.  We learned about an elephant that came from northern Thailand near the border of Myanmar that had it’s back foot severely injured by landmines.  Another elephant that was used in a breeding program and had her hips and back broken by constantly being mounted by male elephants.  Amongst the sad stories there were some happy ones. There were animals that were taken from their owners who were using them to beg in the streets of bangkok, who have now had babies in the park.  We were given the chance to feed the elephants, pet the babies and wash some of the elephants in the river.  It was an absolutely amazing experience and Veronica and I were so happy to have been able to do it!

From Chiang-mai we took a flight to Phuket, Thailand  – the big resort area of Thailand.  We stayed further down the beach from the main city Patong to avoid the lady boys and prostitutes but were still bombarded with them everywhere we went.  Phuket was nice – we had a very nice hostel near the beach and were able to do a day trip to Ko phi phi and their surrounding islands….think about the movie “The Beach”.  Tarcy met up with us in Phuket and we took the day trip together.  We took a boat to the lagoon where they first find the secret island….it looked so beautiful in the movie it’s been one of the things I was looking forward to.  So this peaceful secret beach…..is full of 15-20 boats with hundreds of people littering the shore and water. I know I should have expected this, but it was still disappointing! We then went snorkeling off the boat and saw lots of tropical fish, took tours of more lagoons and made our way to Ko Phi Phi island for lunch at the resorts.  The island was not impressive and was so full of resorts and boats the water was dirty and it was like any major beach town you could go to anywhere.  Our next stop was an island that was set up for the tour operators to dock and let the patrons snorkel, lounge on the beach or eat at the restaurant.  This was much nicer than the rest of our day, and we spent the last few hours in the water and relaxing on big rocks.  We spent the rest of our time in Phuket on the beach and one day rented scooters to go into town to go shopping.  It was a nice relaxing end to the first part of my trip.

On March 4th Vee and I said our good-byes and took off in different directions.  Veronica went on to Singapore and I made the long flight to Sydney, Australia to meet up with my next travel partner! Which is where I will pick up in the next post!

Thanks for reading!

This is going to be quick as I’m just in a gaming cafe taking advantage of some super quick internet and computers.

Here is Cambodia in a recap…..

We arrived in Phnom Penh quickly and easily.  We made it to our hostel and were all a little unimpressed (especially after our last two extremely nice experiences).  We didnt spend much time there, so it doesn’t really matter.  We made our way to the riverfront and walked around the area.  It was a really nice waterfront with a lot of old French colonial buildings.  We spent the majority of our time at the riverfront.

The next day Theresa and I made our way to the Killing Fields and to S:21 – the torture camp and prison.  If you don’t know much about Cambodian history (I did not until looking into travelling here) it is very sad.  In 1975 the Khmer Rouge took over Phnom Penh and caused a mass evacuation of the city.  This new regime wanted to bring the society back to a pure agrarian society.  The Khmer Rouge displaced families into the countryside and everyone was subjected to force labour. New agricultural ideals (trying to make Cambodia self-sufficient and come out from underneath ‘western’ influences) led to widespread famine.  The Khmer Rouge killed educated people, doctors, lawyers etc. to try and create a classless society.  About 1.5 million Cambodians died of starvation, diseases, murders and torture.  The killing fields is basically what it states.  People were taken from S:21 and killed.  Mass graves were uncovered and there is a memorial dedicated to the dead.  They wanted to display everything to the public to make people aware and to remember.  I didn’t take any pictures as it was such a sad tour.  S:21 (Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum) is an old school that was converted into a prison and torture/interrogation centre.  The prison had about 17,000 inmates and there were only 4 people to survive this brutal prison.  Walking through this complex was very eerie and disturbing.  A lot of pictures were displayed of victims and ‘mug shots’ of inmates.  I have learned so much from this part of my trip, it’s heartbreaking.  You should all read – “First they killed my father” as it is a memoir of a girl and her life throughout the Khmer Rouge empire.  It’s hard to believe it happend not that long ago, and that not may people know about it.

After that we needed a little brighter afternoon and toured the  Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda.  The rest of our time in Phnom Penh was just spent touring temples and the area.  We then made our way to Siem Reap and the 6 hour bus ride was awful as I developed food poisoning on the way…..it was awful!  I spent the first day and a half in bed trying to not make it worse.  Our second day in Siem Reap we went to see Angkor Wat at sunset….well we had thought we were.  We ended up going to another temple and it was crazy! SO many people and a not so good view….  The next day we made sure we got to pick where we wanted to go and saw the temple Bayon at Sunrise and then toured the rest of the complex.  Angkor Wat was not what I was expecting.  It was still amazing to see – but was a lot smaller in person.  I  think the first temple we saw (Bayon) was the best as there was only the 4 of us wandering the complex and taking pictures.  It was a hot, sunny day and it’s crazy to walk around this amazing complex that is so old and rich in history!  The rest of our time in Siem Reap was fairly low-key and seeing the city.

We arrived in Bangkok on Saturday night after a crazy long journey from Siem-Reap.   Our bus ticket included, a ride to the border in a car, a 2 hour wait (for no reason) at the border, and then a over-crowded bus that almost didnt fit any of our luggage.  Veronica and I had to sit in the back of the bus, on the engine, amongst everybody’s backpacks…..it was ridiculous! At the start of the bus portion of our trip I was saying we should have spent the $200 on plane tickets…..  When finally getting off the bus (6 hours later) we made our way to our super-nice hostel and it gave us a happy ending to our crazy day.

We’ve just been touring around Bangkok doing a crazy market yesterday and today we met up with Tarcy in town.  We’re planning on doing more touristy things tomorrow and flying to Chiang-mai on Wednesday to go play with elephants!!!

Anyways, I should go.
The crazy gamers around me are starting to scare me…..

Love you all,

Miss you!!!

I’ll try and add pictures soon!

I have a few minutes so I can update you on all that’s happened this past week!

Last week we (Veronica and I) spent a few days in Taipei before leaving Taiwan for Hanoi, Vietnam.  We had a very early morning and made it to Hanoi easily.  The first thing we noticed….was motorbikes and insane traffic.  Now, for those of you who live in Taiwan (or really, any Asian country) know that driving is crazy and there aren’t many rules to the road. Vietnam….is even crazier.  We were in an older part of town so the roads were smaller, which made it even more intense.  We did a quick tour around Hanoi and saw all of the main Historic buildings and memorials.

On Monday we made our way to Halong Bay. It was a 3 day trip, and we kayaked around the bay.  It was absolutely amazing.  The main reason for my trip to Vietnam was to see Halong  Bay and I was not disappointed! The tour we picked out was very nice.  Our first night was spent on a Junk Boat, and our second night was spent in a beautiful resort.

Thursday we made our way to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam.  It was a huge contrast to the traditional city of Hanoi.  It is more industrialized and even MORE crazy motorbikes!!! Thursday afternoon we walked to the “Reunification Palace” (where the pictures of the tank crashing through the gates at the end of the war took place), a church and down the main street which was beautifully decorated for Tet (Chinese New Year).  Today Theresa and I went to Cu Chi which is the tourist area for the tunnels the Viet Cong used in the war.  We had an amazing tour guide, a vet, who was very passionate about his stories.  He took us around the jungle to see how the Viet Cong fought against the Americans.  We went through the tunnels (which were widened for American toursits….and still super small) and fired an AK-47 (and I hit the target!).  This afternoon we made our way to the War Crimes Museum and saw a few photo exhibits about the war.  It has been really neat learning about the Vietnam war from our tour guide and seeing the ‘other side’ to the war.  It really puts things in perspective.

Tonight we are getting ready to leave in the morning to go to Phnom Penh, Cambodia.  Where it will be hotter and more crazy.  We have a long bus trip in the morning, so I should be heading off.

Hope all is well!
See you all soon!

I’ve had a fabulous good-bye party (thanks ladies!) and have said my teary goodbye to all of my kids. My kids did not really understand the whole leaving part, and were pretty pre-occupied with balloons as I tried to make them hug me
Their parents on the other hand were crying and kept asking why I was leaving.  Offering me houses and Taiwanese husbands.  I was red and poofy most of the night, it was rough!

This past week has been full of packing and shipping – and there may be more being left in out hotel in Taipei.  I picked up Veronica at the airport on Wednesday and we’ve been exploring different parts of the city – including eating at the toilet restaurant! We are meeting up with Theresa on Saturday for our flight out to Hanoi, Vietnam.

My itinerary is as follows…..
Hanoi, Vietnam –> Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam –> Phnom Penh, Cambodia –> Siem Reap, Cambodia (Angkor Wat) –> Bangkok, Thailand –> Chiang-Mai, Thailand (ELEPHANTS!!!) –> Phuket, Thailand (BEACH!!) –> Sydney, Australia –> Melbourne, Australia –> Ayer’s Rock, Australia –> Cairns, Australia –> Waikiki, Hawaii –> HOME!

It’s hard to believe that I am starting this trip – I am getting more excited as it gets closer, as well as more worried! I’m sure everything will go great as I have some great company throughout my whole trip!

I’ll end this post with some mushy stuff….
I said good-bye to a lot of people these past few weeks, some easier than others.  The family that I have been blessed with here in Chiayi has been so great, it’s very hard to leave! You have all been more than welcoming and have helped make my year here incredible! I can’t describe to people back home how life in another country functions and how close to new friends you really get.  I will miss you all and hope to see you in the future!

Over the next two months I will try to update this, or facebook, as much as possible.  Our internet connections will be limited and we will be so busy trying to do everything humanly possible throughout our trip.

Later Gator!
Erin
xoxo

I’m updating my blog and it hasn’t been a few weeks!! haha

This past week was ok.  My school had a teacher come in and teach a demo for my class.  Before she came in one of the teachers asked me if I was ok, because I had looked sad when they had told me earlier in the week.  I told her it was just because this was making it more real (and this started the water works)! As the teacher came in and taught my kids a lesson I hid in the lunch area crying, being consoled by my Chinese teacher who was starting to cry as well.  It was awful! I’ve been telling people for weeks about how I don’t know how I’m going to leave these kids and I’ll be crying for the next three weeks!
I tried to explain I’m just a crier, and I’m not good at good-byes as it is. Still didn’t make the other teachers looking at me feel any better, and proceeded to use it to their benefit when they begged me to stay the next day.

Anyways enough of that.  The rest of the week was school and that’s about it.  Friday we watched ‘The Killing Fields’ In prep for our trip to Cambodia. Need to finish more books about Cambodia and Vietnam in the next few weeks.  Saturday Renee and I did some shopping – well mostly  me to get new running shoes as my other shoes killed my feet last weekend.  After figuring out I have enormous feet (especially for Taiwan standards…) I got the only pair they could find for me.  They’re cute, so I’m not to worried about it.  We then went to get our hair done.  Now I know I’ve mentioned it before to a few people, but Taiwanese hairwashes are the best things EVER!  They wash your hair and massage your scalp and shoulders for like 30 mins….it’s amazing! Plus its super cheap so we like to go a lot.  It also helps take the grime and smog out of our hair, plus I get semi-normal (aka non-frizzy) hair for a few days! Saturday night was a birthday party for a friend in our complex.  It was a good night!

Today we went and played frisbee again, with the foreigners instead of the Taiwanese people from before.  This being an impromptu discussion at the party last night and it was all arranged for this afternoon.  It was a lot of fun and I think I might look into doing it when I come back home (just need to not suck at throwing it!! haha).  After we went for dinner with another friend (yummy Korean food) and now I’m in my pj’s bundled up keeping warm.

This week there isn’t much planned besides the usual.  I have another birthday party this weekend at KTV and I’m looking forward to that. Then I think on Sunday we’re going to a town near by and tour the area.  Don’t know much about that though.

OH! The reason I started this post was to talk about music and dancing, and share in the wonder of Korean-pop!  In Taiwan there has been a couple of ‘catchy’ songs that have been really popular here.  In the summer a song called “Sorry, Sorry” came out and took everyone by storm.  It’s really fun and catchy and everyone knows the dance moves.  I know Theresa’s students would dance for her, and my older class would always sing it in class.  Plus we’d pull it out at our party’s because it’s just so much fun!  Right now there is a new one starting and it’s being played EVERYWHERE.  The kids are also starting to do the dance moves in class….
So attached below are the two music videos.
Enjoy!

It has been a crazy few weeks full of celebrating, working and travelling.  Christmas was alright – we all kept busy so we wouldn’t be thinking of what we were missing back home.  We had a breakfast at Talitha’s house and then I had a lunch at another friends house.  At night we had some people over and had a Christmas dinner and gift exchange.  It turned out to be a good day!

The next day was my ‘parade’ with my school.  It turned out we weren’t a part of the main parade, and ended up having to wait around for a few hours waiting to go into the stadium to do our dance.  The big parade was with a lot of marching bands from around Taiwan and a few from other countries (Thailand and the Phillippenes from what I could guess) we watched them go by and then entered the parade into the stadium.  My kids were so good waiting for so long! They did their little dance and I pounced on my kids after with hugs because they did so awesome in front of hundreds of people in a huge stadium.  I don’t even now how some of them did it!

Sunday was spent doing absolutely nothing, and a brief trip to the movies.  The rest of the week was a blur of crazy kids and getting ready for New Years.  Renee and I made a mad dash to Taipei to see the fireworks off of Taipei 101. We JUST made our train running on as the train doors shut and too the High Speed rail to Taipei. After our amazing taxi driver took us to our hotel (which turned out to be 30 mins outside of town…) he dropped us off at a local park to have a great view of the fireworks. The fireworks were kind of short, but it was still really neat.  We then made a slow walk to the subway where we waited in a mass mob for 1 1/2 hours to get into the subway station and on a train.  The next day we made our way back to the train station and boarded a REALLY long train ride into Hualien.  Our bed and breakfast in Hualien was GORGEOUS.  The owner makes his own solid wood furniture so the whole place (which was above his show room and workshop) was outfitted in all of his work.  The owner and manager went out of their way to make our stay incredible.

Saturday morning we got up at 4am and hopped into the back of the owners truck.  He made a shelter in the back where we bundled up for an hour drive up the mountain to a natural hotspring.  After climbing down a path, over barriers, a suspension bridge and ‘repelling’ down a steep staircase we climbed into the HOT water right beside the cold river streaming by.  It was absolutely beautiful as we watched the sunrise and lighten everything around us.  Around 8am we got dopped off at the middle part of Toroko gorge and were set for the rest of our day.  After sleeping on the park bench for an hour, we set off walking down the mountain. The scenery was amazing and the air was so clean! The sun was shining and the sky was blue! Around 4 hours into our trek we stopped to eat some snacks and realized that we might have bitten off more than we chew.  4 hours later with blistered feet, sore and pulled muscles we made it to the entrance where the bus could take us back to Hualien.   We walked around like old lady’s for the next few hours as we went back out for dinner and to the night market.  Sunday we went back to the train station for our hour delayed train and made it to Taipei sitting on the floor.  We took the luxury bus back to Chiayi and were happy to be home. Taiwan buses are a whole lot nicer than the ones back home – most have lounge chairs and lazy boys with personal Tv’s and vibrating seats.  Plus it’s pretty cheap – we couldn’t afford it back home that’s for sure!

This week we’re planning more of our trip, and trying to figure out my last few weeks in Taiwan.  Veronica is meeting me in Taiwan at the beginning of February so that will be the start of my trip.

My wordpress wont let me upload pictures and facebook still hates me, so I will hopefully have pictures up at SOME point.

Later days!

I know Taiwan was on the news back home today for the earthquake last night.  It was pretty intense, not going to lie.  Some of my friends who were further up in their buildings and in different parts of the city were affected more.  Things moving and falling over and a lot of shaking.  I was actually outside our building at the time, and it started as a small rumble that got bigger and bigger.  It was quite neat seeing and feeling it all from outside.  It was the biggest on the other side of the island, so it wasn’t a 6.4 over here -  only around a 4/5.

Yesterday was also spent booking a lot of flights and hostels for my trip home.  The Vietnam part of my trip is fully booked (leaving Taiwan on Feb 6th) and am working on the next section – Cambodia!  I’m getting pretty excited, but it still seems hard to believe that I’ll be going to all these places – so soon!

Today we finally made a trip down to Tainan, Renee and I have been trying to go see the city for a few weeks now and it has just been put off due to other plans coming up and just poor timing. We started off around 10 this morning and made it to Tainan about an hour later on the train.  We took a free tourist bus through the city and stopped at the Confucious temple and saw the beautiful red buildings and huge old trees. It was very pretty! There was a kids art workshop going on, so kids were painting everywhere.

We decided to follow a walking tour in the Lonely Planet and made our way down the street to the red gate.  It had an even bigger tree and a neat ‘fort’ building.  We kept walking and made our way to lunch at the same Indian restaurant as our last trip to Tainan. A necessity when travelling to bigger cities is different food! It was very yummy! We walked our way back through the area and ended up doing a big circle.  We came across another shrine and took some pics and shopped in a gift shop.  In Chiayi there isn’t a lot of ‘souvenirs’ that I’ve found – so I bought a few things that I thought were neat.

While walking back to the train station we saw a lot of Christmas demonstrations and astronauts! We had seen them walking through the streets on our bus ride earlier, and found the store they were advertising for.  Why they had astronauts for advertising we dont know, but we definitely took the photo op!

We got home a few hours ago now and are settling in for the night.  It’s cooled off a lot here – still in the teens and twenties, but seems a LOT colder in our apartment and while driving.  I never thought I would think 18 degrees was SO cold! It hopefully will be the coldest it will get!

This week is going to be busy with getting ready for Christmas.  My kids are enjoying singing Christmas songs with me and reading a lot of stories.  They really liked watching ‘Frosty the Snowman’ last week – and they ask to hear about him all the time.  I’m going to have a lot of fun stuff planned for my kids, crafts and a party on the 24th.  We’re having a breakfast at a friends house on Christmas, and then drinks and Christmas movies at night when everyone is done work.  On the 26th there is a big parade in town, and of course my school is participating in it. My kids are marching and doing a performance as well.  I don’t have much information about it, but I hope it doesn’t last ALL day.

For New Years Renee and I are going to Taipei to see the fireworks, then we are making our way to Hualien (on the east coast) to see the mountains and Toroko Gorge.  It’s been on my list of things to do for awhile and we FINALLY have a long weekend to go and not be as rushed.  It’s a long train ride around the island.  I’m trying to figure out what else I need to see around here before I leave in Feb.

That was a big post!
I’ll try and add pictures – the uploader doesn’t like me so we’ll see how far I get.
Have a Merry Christmas!!!
Miss you!
xoxo

Here is a recap on the last few weeks.
Open house came and went – I spent a lot of extra time at the school for a morning of ‘fun’.  The decorations are still up as I refuse to take them down….but this week most of them might come down as I’m going all out for Christmas.  I’ve decided that any of my free time with them will be filled doing Christmas-y things.  I’m going to make them love Christmas!! haha

After Open house we started planning for a Thanksgiving at our apartment.  Renee moved in and it’s her favourite day of the year, so we thought we’d have a party.  It turned out to be a Christmas decorated thanksgiving feast.  It was a good night! Wasn’t as good as home, but we made some delicious food on the stove and in a TINY toaster oven!

This weekend has been fairly laid back as well….spending hours on the internet looking up airfares, hostels, hotels and tours.  It’s mindboggling how prices vary! On Friday night I FINALLY got to see New Moon….eeeeek! There was also a big political rally in the middle of town.  For the past two months there has been trucks driving down all the streets with loud speakers spouting the candidates views and objectives.  I dont know how many people were up for election, but the trucks can be found on almost every street for most of the day.  It was really annoying.  The rally was actually really cool and exciting.  They drive up and down on ‘floats’ and chant and set of firecrackers and confetti cannons.  It was SO loud and so many people.  I’ve added some pics (the pics don’t really do it justice…and my uploader is taking FOREVER).  The video’s will be edited and hopefully put on fb.
I think politics back home would interest a lot more people if it were a little more exciting and a lot less old men in suits.  Just a thought… Who doesnt like a parade???

Other than that there hasnt been anything crazy exciting going on.  Of course my school is going all out for Christmas and we will be doing a performance at city hall and marching in the parade.  I’m looking so forward to it – although someone had come common sense to figure out that my kids are a little young to be doing a dance routine where they plan on raising a Christmas tree….somehow.  We will be ringing bells…as far as I know.
I’ve also taught my kids Jingle Bells….I will regret that by the end of the month.

Hope everything is good back home!
Love you and miss you!

My last post was about Changhua and anticipating the Halloween party (man I suck!).  Halloween was good, had a good night out.  There were a couple of bands, but most of the night was spent on the front deck with everyone (and sneaking off to 7-eleven…).  Sunday we stayed in watching movies – i think….the Sunday back up plan it seems.

The weekend after that was at another cricket tourney and a night out at the pub – which turned out to a night at the park.  It was low-key hang out. Wasn’t out too late.  The Sunday was spent fairly low-key watching the same movies over and over again – and putting my friend to use cutting out paper for my Open House this coming Friday (she has some awesome talents in cutting out palm leaves ).

My week was busy with school and gearing up for Open House. The super fun event that it is (boooerns).  I just spent the evening in my class making it look like a jungle.  I’ll probably be there for the next few nights as well pulling out all the stops…. My chinese teacher has been away so it’s kinda more hectic than usual in class.

This past Saturday I ran some errands and hung out at home – we went out to the night market that night and met up with a new girl in town.  We stayed for a really long time and explored the vast array of products.  Sunday we trekked to Taichung on a mission to find Theresa a computer.  She was looking for an HP mini and was having no luck around our city.  She ended up going a different route, but bought her laptop successfully – the system just needs to be put into English, she’ll get it in a couple of days.  We ended up going to Chili’s and having delicious (long awaited) ice cream!!

Anyways, I’m off.  Gonna try and buy tickets for Bon Jovi today….stupid time change has me trying to buy them at 1am.

I’ll talk to you soon!
Miss you!