The Life of Rachel: October!!!!

Seriously, though I am so excited for October. It is my favorite month because it has my favorite holiday! As I have gotten older I realize how much I love Halloween! I don't even know why, I don't particularly like dressing up, I don't like being scared, and I can get candy at other times, but I do love trick-or-treating. Is 23 too old for that?? I think I just absolutely love Fall and how its starting to FINALLY cool off and leaves fall and I need a sweater at night, and just the feel of the holidays. I just love it! We started decorating the school on October 1st. It is finally something to take our minds off the heat, and mid-semester plateau. We are all now on the down slide. I have so many mixed emotions. I am so excited to be so close to going home, I've been waiting all year, but I am starting to get sad. Its hard to realize that this will be over, and I will not be coming back. I don't want to leave all of my kids! I feel like they are mine! And I want to take them with me (well most of them.. some are just naughty). But that's reality :( I hate change so much.

My classroom as I started to decorate

Thanks mom for filling my cupboard!

All the kids had a headstone

At the end of September we started doing Insanity. Umm serious this is Insane! The first week was a blur of being sore and sweating. So much sweat.

We had October 10th off of school. It is Taiwan's birthday or independence day sort of. That day we hung out and relaxed. Then Kayla and I went to Taichung to a night market. We met up with Elias, a guy from the English branch. We ate pizza at a place owned by an Italian guy, it was so delicious. He hand makes everything, so non of it tasted Asian which was a miracle. Then we just walked around the night market, looking at thing and talking. It was a really fun night. At the end of the night we missed the last bus and stood there for half an hour before we finally decided to take a taxi home. The taxi driver was nice and knew a lot of English. Taking a taxi is always a special treat. It's relaxing, not worrying about when you have to get off, not having other people and smells around you. Being here and taking public transportation for a year has made me so grateful for cars

On the bus on the way to the night market

The weekend after 10/10 we went on a trip with one of our secretaries Emma, her daughter Stone, and Lauren, a teacher at Berhan. We went up to Alishan or Ali mountain. This mountain is famous for the sun rising through the misty fog clouds. We left on Saturday morning and took a train to Chiayi. When we got there we had a while to wait for the bud to Alishan so we walked around and went to a mall. We also ate lunch. Chiayi is famous for their turkey. We ate rice bowls with turkey and miso soup. It was pretty good. Then we met up with Lauren and rode the bus for three hours to Alishan. When we got out at Alishan it was blessedly cold. I haven't been that chilly in so long and it felt sooo good. After checking into the hotel we put our sweaters on and went to the little touristy area. We looked at souvenirs and ate dinner. We had a big dinner all sharing different dishes on a lazy susan. It was pretty good stuff, fish and fried whole shrimp.

On the train to Chiayi

With Stone

Famous for its Turkey!

Our turkey lunch

Alishan was foggy!

It was cold enough to wear long sleeves

View from our room

It was cold!

You eat the whole shrimp.. yummm..

Dinner

Green oranges for dessert

It was cold!

After shopping a little we went back to the hotel and went to bed pretty fast, it was a long day of traveling. We had 7 people in one room on 4 beds. Logan and Ashley shared a twin bed while me, Lauren, and Kayla shared two twins pushed together. It was a very interesting night sleep wise. It was also the coldest we had all been in a while so all the walls were cold and the room was cold. It was fun to all be together though. We were woken up at 4:30 by a call from the front desk. We all got up, and got ready. We took a train about 25 minutes up to the top of the mountain. Then we spent about an hour up there watching the sun rise over the mountain and mist. It was beautiful. And cold. Such a good combination. I have never been so happy to be cold in my life after months of hot humid days in Changhua. The air was so crisp and clean up there. And it was quiet. While we watched the sunrise, it was blissfully quiet. I haven't heard it that quiet since I came to Taiwan because in Changhua there is always cars going by or sirens or something to keep it loud. We were finally outside of the city.

In the morning at the train station

All in bed together

It was early

On the train

It was pretty packed

On the train back

Me and Emma

Anyways after watching the sunrise we took the train back down to our hotel. We ate breakfast, which was an array of foods you would think people would eat for lunch, fried noodles and the shredded pork hair stuff and things like that. There was toast and jam which I ate with the fried rice noodles. Then we all went back to the room and crashed for a couple of hours. I slept better during that nap then I did the whole night. I think I must have been more tired. We woke up from our nap and checked out of the hotel. Then went back to the touristy part of the little town, it was almost like Park City, wooden buildings with shops (i'm used to cement buildings now) and a little chilly. It was in the mountains with green trees all around. It was beautiful. We hung out in that area for about 2 hours and drank some hot chocolate and took pictures. Then we go on the bus and went back to Chiayi. In Chiayi we ate Subway for lunch and then took the train back to Changhua. The trip was short but it was amazing! I'm so glad I got to go experience another part of beautiful Taiwan with a great group of people. We had a lot of fun. There was this one girl, a white girl, we met, i met her on the bus ride up actually, she gave me some tissues to use at the rest stop we took. Then she was on our little car ride to the hotel, she stayed in the hotel. We also saw her up the mountain and at breakfast. Anyways when I first met her I told everyone I was with that there was a white girl here but she had an accent it didn't sound like she was from America. She talked to us a bit later and Logan said it sounded like she had lived here for a while because she had a little Chinese accent or something. We ask her and she is from Kentucky and has been here for as long as me. WHAT?! This girl had like developed a fake Chinese accent or something it was so weird... But anyways it was a fun trip and nice to be away from the city.

Rice Noodles for breakfast

Our hotel

We were in the forest!

More Fog

On the bus home

In October our boss sent notes home to all the kids telling their parents they could sign up for home visits with the teachers. The first Home Visit Kayla and I went on was with our SPE student Jonhson. yea, his parents spell his name a little different. In school jonhson is a naughty child. He likes to talk about poo poo and show everyone his underwear, hit other kids, and run crazy all over the place when he is supposed to be sitting down. I was a little wary of this home visit but excited to see how Jonhson acts in front of his parents. We met them at a restaurant called Style Cafe. Jonhson was very excited that night, running around and laughing. He was so cute! His parents were nice, but he had to translate for us. He knows so much English already! Dinner was pretty good, there was a like river and waterfall in the middle of the restaurant! Afterwards we went outside and played with him on a play ground outside. Then it was time to leave. We walked out with his parents and then we turned around and went back into the cafe and ordered an oreo smoothie that we say earlier on the menu. It was so funny. We hung around by our bikes waiting for them to take off for a little while, and rode our bikes to the other side of the restaurant. We both really wanted an oreo shake! And it was fun, we felt sneaky, and were trying not to be rude.
Kayla and I also went out to dinner with her student Ruby one night and ate beef noodles. They were pretty good. And then the next night we went out with Peter and ate Hot Pot. It was fun to see the students with their families and see where their personalities come from.

Johnson and a delicious drink

The restaurant had water running through it

Me and my oreo shake (it wasn't that good)

Homemade oreos I made

Our FHE with the sisters and elders

The other big trip I took in October was to Kaoshiung. I rode the train down at 6 am on Saturday to meet up with my friend Lison. Lison was one of my university students that I became really close with. She graduated in June and moved back home, near Kaoshiung. She invited me down for a weekend and our plans got cancelled a few times because of typhoons :/ Finally I made it down the last weekend in October. Once I got there Lison and her brother Peter picked me up from the train station. We ate lunch, a specialty in her county, its like thick noodles made from rice. It was good. Then Lison and I went with one of her High School teachers and a german girl Rike that was staying with her teacher. We went to a factory where they make preserved eggs. It was fun to take a tour, but man did those eggs smell bad. Then we got some sugar cane juice. Lison and I took her teachers scooter to the local traditional fish market. It was so gross to see all the fish, dead and alive, and their blood and guts all over the floor. But I got some cool pictures. After that Rike, Lison and I went to Lison's house for dinner. We celebrated her grandpa's birthday. We sang happy birthday to him in German, English, and Chinese. It was really fun to talk to her family and be in a family environment.

Sunrise from the train

Lunch, a traditional food from southern Taiwan

Baby Wax Apples

The farm

The old eggs factory

Going in to see 1000 year old eggs

They smelled

Ducks for days

At the local fish market

Shark

On a scooter with Lison

They had dog to eat at her grandpa's
birthday party

Black chicken

They loved that this picture made it look like I
had the straw in my nose (It wasn't)

With our sugar cane juice

Sugar cane

Paparazzi

At the party

The whole family at the party

On Sunday we woke up and got ready for a day in Kaoshiung, we ate breakfast at McDonalds, which ended up not being breakfast because they said they ran out of breakfast! We were angry. We picked up Rike and went to Kaoshiung. We went to the Dream Mall. The biggest mall in southern Taiwan. It has a huge ferris wheel on the roof which we rode and looked out over Kaoshiung City. After that we went down by the water. I ate Stinky Tofu for the first time, it really wasn't too bad, but it smells sooo bad. Then we found a little Mexican place and ate Mexican for lunch. It really wasn't as good as I wanted it to be though. I cannot wait to be home and eat real Mexican food again. After we ate we drove to a shopping area and looked around for a while. There was a frozen yogurt place there so I bought some. It was delicious. Then it was time for me to take the train home because I had to be at work the next morning :( The three hour train ride was uneventful but very cold and I was so exhausted and glad to be home again. I was sad to leave, it was so fun to be with Lison and her family and Rike. It was the best weekend I had had for a while, so comfortable and welcoming.