Happy Birthday to me! and other stories..

Birthday celebration

So after Taipei, which was soo soo fun figuring stuff out on my own, came my birthday. Turning 23 was super uneventful. My boss bought me a cake which was really nice of her. Chocolate cake just is not the same here as it is in America. I miss dense American cake. Oh one of my kids, Tina, also brought me a piece of paper folded up with my name on it. Inside was three pieces of candy for my birthday present. It was soo cute!Friday night we went to McDonalds for my birthday. You know your in a foreign country when McDonalds smells good to you.

Birthday Present from Tina

Saturday we went to Costco, I bought myself Costco muffins and string cheese for my birthday present. Eating Costco pizza was pretty delicious. But still did not make it seem like my birthday.
Sunday I went to church and we had break the fast. Someone brought brownies which made my day. I spent the day skyping with different family members and for dinner I had a Costco muffin and a string cheese. Happy Birthday to me..
Since my birthday weekend was uneventful I thought I would also share some funny stories of the last two months with my kids in class. So bodily functions are like not even a thing here in Taiwan. People fart and burp all the time with out saying excuse me. Kids let sbd's out all the time and the room will just reek and no one will admit to it. I'm like dude, if mine was that bad I would probably own up to it. (Sorry mom I'm not being very lady like again..) So this one day in class, I had pretty bad gas, and I let it out. It was supposed to be silent. But it bounced off my wooden chair and was very loud, right next to some kids that were playing on their break. The best part is that the kids didn't even flinch! In America anyone would have looked at me and made a face and said ewww gross.. I know, It happened to me once in 7th grade. But these kids did not even look up from their game! I silently laughed to myself.

Birthday Cake

Oh there was also this one time Daniel, one of my kids, raised his hand as said, "Teacher! Can I go poo poo?" First I laughed. and then I said, Daniel you can just ask me to go to the bathroom. You don't need to say poo poo. Another time I told Candy to hurry up if she wanted to go to the bathroom. She said but teacher! It's poo poo! These kids are very open with me.
Another time was when Kent came to school and took out the UNO cards and started teaching Daniel how to play Black Jack. How does a 9 year old kid know how to play Black Jack?? I was so confused the whole day about that.

Costco Muffin, happy Birthday to me!

There was this one time I was really sick. I still had to teach because no one can cover my classes, but I was not feeling good at all. The kids kept arguing with me and I lost my temper and yelled at them enough to scare them. They looked pretty scared. I felt super bad after. But after class the two boys I was most angry at, said bye to me and then as I got on my bike to go home, five of them came around me and hugged me goodbye. I love kids and how forgiving they can be. That is the best part of my job. :) It made my day

Taipei

The Taipei Temple

The last Saturday in January, I went up to Taipei to check it out. Taipei is amazing. It is the largest city and it is much more modern and just fun to be in. We first went to the temple. It is a very small temple compared to the Salt Lake or Oakland ones. It was fun I looked around the distribution center and the small grounds and then I went on my own adventure of Taipei. First I walked to the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. This place was amazing and when I have more time I am going to go back and explore it more and look at some of the museum parts of the hall. I just wondered around outside and for the first time I felt like I was in Asia like you think in the movies. (Not the busy crowded streets and smell and food everywhere and bright signs-I live that everyday) Like old school in history Asia-the type I would love. I seriously felt like Mulan walking through gardens and seeing the old buildings. There were people surrounding the old buildings and doing dances too and there was a huge plaza where people were gathered. It was awesome. Like I cannot even describe fully how peaceful and beautiful that place was right in the middle of the city. After that I went to the subway station which was right under the memorial. I took the subway, or MRT in Taipei, by myself. I had to switch lines half way through my travels but I just followed the colors and it worked out perfect. So thank goodness subways are color coded, and air conditioned. The stations were definetly not air conditioned and the trains were jam packed. So blasting air was so nice to have when shoved next to people, which the normal trains i take are not air conditioned.

This place was so beautiful!

Gardens and Trees were everywhere in this little sanctuary

The memorial

A church building in Taiwan

The gate to the memorial

At the MRT bathrooms there was "real time" outside the door.
You could see which stalls were open before you even enter the bathroom.

Looking back at the courtyard near the memorial

Taipei 101

I took the MRT to the Taipei main station. It's a nice train/bus/subway station. Then I walked to Taipei 101 which is the third tallest building in the world. This building is awesome. It is supposed to represent a piece of bamboo is what one local told me. It is not a tall building among other tall buildings. It sticks out very far above its surroundings. On new years eve and for Chinese New year they let fire crackers off out of the sides and the top. I tried to go to the top of the building but it was over an hour wait in line because one of the elevators was broken. I was meeting the rest of the group in an hour so I didn't pay. I just planned on coming back when I didn't have to rush. Taipei 101 also has a huge mall attached to it. A very upper class mall. It was very nice. We ate at the food court in the basement. I bought some overpriced Indian food that gave me bad heart burn. The lesson learned from this food experience- Some things look good in Taiwan-but nothing tastes as good as it looks or seems. Taipei 101 was all lit up when it turned dark and it was beautiful but cold by this time. We left from Taipei 101 and went home. I'm leaving out a lot of pictures I took because pictures just do not do justice to things that I saw and the way that I felt when I was walking around that city. I cannot wait to go back!

Taipei 101 at night

A picture inside Taipei 101 showing how tall it is compared to the rest of the city