Sleeping Beauty on Green Island

My apartment: view from the front door 

Taitung county: View of the mountains and ocean 

Canadian Girls hanging out in the hostel!! 

It was really windy, but the water is a beautiful blue! 

Ocean sunset 

Sunday, May 15, 2005

May 15

Today I slept in. My church meets at 5pm so I get to enjoy a lazy morning and enjoy the rest of the day hanging out. Tonight Gene spoke about Unity and trust among believers. And afterwards I met up with Rebecca and we went out to eat at a salad buffet place.

Now I am full and trying to get this site to work... I am hoping...

Faith

Taiwan

I am trying to get this blog site up and running, but am finding it hard to use. Hopefully it will start working for me.

Faith

May 3, 2005

My weekend adventures to Green Island were amazing. My alarm rang at the early hour of 6am on Saturday morning, but the rest of the weekend was worth it. We drove out to the harbor, which is about a 20-minute drive out of the city. I went with Rebecca and her friend Matt. The temperature and weather was so amazing. I will post pictures from the weekend. The water was so blue and green and warm. I rented some equipment to go snorkeling. The other two grew up in California so they are used to the water, but I am a beginner. The clarity was about 30 feet in the water. The coral was unbelievably beautiful- I never really gave the water world much thought before (especially growing up in MB and SK), but it was absolutely stunning. We came across some weird looking fish/ sea animals. Water snakes are very poisonous, so when we spotted one, we turned around and headed out of there. We saw blowfish, rainbowfish, and these long looking fish with their fins in the back of their bodies with long mouths. But I swallowed a few too many mouthfuls of water, so that was enough for me. Rebecca and I did manage to go snorkeling again on Sunday morning in a different spot where the coral was in better shape because it was a little deeper.
The rest of Saturday was spent speeding around the island on scooters checking out the other sights- beaches, walking trails, and caves.The boat ride over on Saturday morning was smooth sailing, but on Sunday afternoon when we returned back to Taitung, the waves were so big and chopping. The boat twisted and turned, thankfully we wereokay and made it back safe and sound.
A funny story: Our boat to leave Green Island was scheduled for 2:30pm on Sunday, so a boat comes up about that time and we started to get into line (Taiwanese lines… if there is such a thing- a big group of people pushing to get on), Rebecca was in front of me and gave her ticket to the ticket lady and goes on, when I go to get on the boat after a few people go in front of me, I give my ticket to the same lady and just as I am walking up the plank the lady grabs my arm and won't let me go. She is yelling (or speaking really LOUD)in Chinese (like I can understand???). I am telling her (in English-haha) that my friend is on the boat already, why shouldn't I be let on the boat, and I am saying- NO, NO, let me on. I try pulling myarm away and walking up the plank about 3 times before she lets my arm go, gives me both of our tickets back to me and allows me to walk on the boat. At this time, Rebecca is looking out the window at me and this lady and wondering what is going on. Well, I find Rebecca on the boat and an employee of the company escorts us off the boat. He tells us that we got on the wrong boat. (haha)- so funny. We cracked ourselves up for that one. What a funny moment. We didn't even think to check which boat we were getting onto. But everything worked out mostly. Our ‘real’ boat came about an hour later- but we still got home and that is what matters.

Just before I started writing this, I had an episode. I am having amoment- I want to go home, this place is awful and I want out of here. I was reaching into my desk for a piece of gum and I feel something crawling on my arm so my first response is to knock it off (most times there is nothing there), but this time there was a cockroach on it and I squished it all over my arm and hand and it was sooo juicy- so gross. I got so upset that I screamed at the top ofmy lungs (and I think I scared myself and the people in my office)and then I started to cry uncontrollably. How awful, what an awful experience! Yuck, yuck, yuck!! Well, I think there goes my lunch appetite. Luckly, the teacher sitting beside me came and cleaned it up for me, so I wouldn't have to.

So life goes on and on. The teachers evaluated me yesterday- that makes me sooo happy – NOT REALLY. I don't know the results; I don't even want to know what they think…. Ahhhh….Soon I will know. Pray that I will take their criticism well and not get hurt over what they say, but be able to use it to make my teaching even better. Maybe I can bring up the cockroach experience- “I am still adjusting…ahh!! I had a cockroach crawling on me and I can' t handle that….ahhh…!” I think I need emotional counseling now-Really. Well, that is about all for this week.

Please feel free to shareyour stories of life (and bugs) with me. I'd love to hear from you.
Missing home (especially today…) Faith