The Anchor of Our Love

Our Sweet Ride in Aruba

We decided to take a dive off of our boat on a snorkel cruise. The crowd was amazed at our skills! It was a rope swing on a whole new level!

Sunset in Paradise

This is the beach outside our hotel. The sunset was amazing every night!

Honeymoon

This is the view from our hotel in Aruba! We had the best view. This was the weather for all eight days. Things are a little different now!

River Trip

This is a river that feeds from the waterfalls from behind our house. The ward had a camp out so we went today for the BBQ! The water was so clear and a pretty aquablue. The water was only cold for the first few minutes! We went swimming and jumped off the rocks and skipped rocks. We tried to go up to the waterfalls but we had a heavy rainstorm last night so the road was closed. Maybe next week!

Fruit Stand

Valentine's Day in Taiwan

This is at our favorite fried rice place. We walk in and the ask Caleb if its the usual and we say yes. So I guess we eat there more than we should if after 2 weeks they know our order. This s one of the owners and her daughter, they gave me the rose balloon for the Chinese Valentines Day!

Life in Taiwan

So its been a little difficult trying to adjust to life here, but I think we have done okay. This is Caleb with one of the locals, they're more friendly than they look! This is in a store downtown.

This is my life

So little did I know that one should always go to the bathroom before leaving and then wait until you return home. This is the WOMAN'S public restroom. You squat over the porcelain hole in the ground. Not an easy or comfortable task!

This is the aftermath of the typhoon! We still went out, against everyone's advisement!

So here's one of the waves on the eve of the Typhoon. We had to tie up all the playground equipment, put tape on our glass windows, tie all our tables down, take down anything that could fly or rip. We had to put our scooter in the school, tie our bikes up and tie the doors closed. It was very intense. Big signs downtown were ripped off, tons of trees and crops were knocked over, lots of flooding. A part of the street sank in, and a few people died. We made it, without any sleep of course. The wind was so powerful, we couldn't go outside. A few hours after it had passed we were on our scooter and we were knocked around by the wind. I honestly thought we were going to die. Caleb did not. He won, Ya! We found an amazing breakfast place with great dan bing and man tou ( a really good bread).

Our First Week, Only 18 More To Go

So we officially completed our first week!! We teach our first three classes starting at 9am and they are only 20 mins each ( we teach 3 different groups ages 3,4 and 5). We usually read a book and then play a game. Then at 10:40 we teach our second three classes, each 30 mins long. This week we talked about the body so we had them trace their hands, feet, arms, legs etc. Then at 3:00 we teach our last two classes, each 45 mins long. This one can be tricky, we do our best to keep them entertained, which is not an easy task. At the start of every class we have to say "Good Morning Class", and then the kids say "Good morning Teacher Kendra and Teacher Caleb, we love you". And the same at the end of the class. It's pretty funny. They are fairly well behaved, they don't really listen to the English teachers, but that's going to change soon. We have them repeat back words to us and for the most part they get it. Of course they are all very cute kids. Not as cute as my old kids, though. I still miss them, although working with these kids will be great. They love to play tag, which to them means Caleb will chase them the entire time. And the little girls love to show me their pretty accessories and hair. We do private tutoring at night, but that's with older kids. Well the Typhoon is here, its pouring so loud we can't hear the TV. Wish us luck!

This is the entrance of our school and apartment. That's Caleb on our scooter! The people here drive so crazy. There will be a major intersection and when the light turns yellow, cars from all direction just go. Actually, it doesn't matter what the light is, everyone just goes regardless.

Miao

This guy is on top of the temple shown in the previous picture.

Here is one of the local temples, its called a Miao. Caleb says not to call it Buddhist, because they say it's a combination of Buddhism, Taoism, and local beliefs. There's one on every block practically. The have so much detail in them, it's really amazing.

Here is the beach. The waves were really picking up because of the typhoon. The Typhoon is supposed to hit about 3 hours south and the waves will get to be anywhere from 10-15 feet there. This is the pacific side so on a clear day we can see home! We plan to go surfing, we're going to show the Taiwanese people we're not afraid of the ocean!

This is right by the beach. It had a little walkway that had grass grown over it and the brightest color green hills. The Chinese men that were hanging out there did not want to take our picture but finally one of the men took it for us. The typhoon is supposed to come today (Friday), but as you can see in the background the sky is getting ready. It started to rain right after we took this picture.

The beach

This is us at a stone down by the beach! We're not sure what the Chinese Charters mean, but its pretty neat anyway!

Our View

This is the view from our apartment. The mountains are so pretty and they catch the clouds and it is amazing! There are tons of rice fields all around as you can see on the bottom right!

Pictures At Last

So this is the view from the outside looking into our apartment! Pretty nice!

Caleb is Amazing

So after trying and trying to figure how to work this, Caleb got it in about 5 seconds! So we can now operate our blog. Yeah for English!! We have been doing well, adjusting to everything and finding food that passes my standards. But now we can put up some pictures and show you how we are living. Please check back in tonight or tomorrow, I will add some pictures tonight! Can't wait for everyone to see them!

So Far

First let us explain why there are no pictures yet, our computer is in chinese. So the screen we are using has everything in chinese charaters and Caleb cannot read them anymore (a shame really) It took us over fifteen minutes and more than 30 trys to figure out how to log in and post this, so pitcures may take some time. Well we were able to go on a scooter ride to all the night markets, which really means there will be dead bird and fish hanging everywhere and stinky tofu which is the most disgusting smell you could ever experience and then some. We rode our bikes to the beach last night and lit some fieworks. We woke up and rode down to the street market this morning and bought Dan Bing and a huge peach. It was amazing, Dan Bing is a tortilla and egg with chopped up onion and a thick sauce. Yum! Well we have to go to a class now but keep checking in with us and hopefully we will get this all figured out so we can show you some of the crzy things were doing!

We're here!! After a 12 hour flight, an hour bus ride, a 3 hour train ride we made it to our new home in Hua Lian Taiwan!! Its not quite what we had imagined but its going to be great!! We live above the preschool and our surrounded by the green mountains so thats really cool. We had our first meal here, a really nice restaraunt called Mai Dang Lao, maybe you have heard of the American verson Mac Donalds. It was great!! We're going to unpack and then take a scooter ride around the town!! We'll keep you posted on all the exciting things!!

Here We Go

So we are off tonight at 1:45am from LAX, and will land in Taiwan the 9th and take an hour bus ride to then take a four hour train ride to finally see where our new home will be!!! We will miss everyone a ton so please keep in contact!! Wish us luck!

We Are Off!!!

We are leaving for Taiwan on Wednesday. We wanted to start this blog to share our asian adventure with friends and family back home! Please check in with us regularly, as we will be posting pictures and news of our adventure. Be sure to leave comments to stay in touch with us and regular emails will help us feel less home sick!! We will see you next December!!!!