reunited at last

Sweet baby sister Kyndell made the 13 hour air time to hop on over to Taiwan for a little vacay!
We've had the best time so far! Kyndell has been quite shocked at some of the things one can encounter here....that might mean I've been here for a while. They don't even phase me any more.
The first week was quick and this weekend we spent our time in Kenting, down at the southern tip of Taiwan. 
Its been raining here quite a bit but we managed some really quality sunshine today.
This coming week will be jam packed with even more adventures! 

 She made it!!

 Henry is the Christian Grey of Kaohsiung!!! Thanks Sarah!

 Lovin the weather

 Happy to have my sissy here!

 Picking wild flowers

You never know what you'll end up with when you order around here but this peach fizz was pretty tasty!

 Kyndell loves my photo shoots

 Such a beautiful Taiwan day

Getting pretty good with those C sticks

 Oh you know...just kick starting the ole scoot to get here to the shop...dead battery! Always an adventure here.

 Its funny because he looks as though he actually understands my chinese. On the contrary we got nasty flower tea haha

 Taiwan breakfast is pretty great.

 Kyndell got comfortable enough on the scoot to take some photos!

  The lovely neighbor hood views

 Tepinyaki loving

Bianca and I must be tired after a long day of teaching.

 Fruit beer at the 7-11...typical 

 Just the dry cleaners drying their laundry during a torrential down poor.

Our fancy breakfast stop

We'll be sure to post more photos soon! Up next beach adventures and more Taiwan craziness!!

am I crazy????

Today at work two of the other girls were talking about how they want to run a half marathon this fall on one of the nearby islands...I didn't pipe up AT ALL! In fact I turned away so one of them wouldn't even dare ask me to join. 
I HATE running. For some reason I see it as the end all, be all of life.
Thats when a wave of jealousy came over me....How cool is it that these young women have enough ambition to train for something that they aren't positive they can do and aren't currently prepared for. Something that scares them.
Who am I to not push myself??
I've been trying to get in to better exercise habits here but have quickly found that not working towards a goal doesn't seem to be very productive.....
So....you guessed it. I turned around in my chair and said, "Hey, I think I want to try too."
Immediately they were super supportive and said that we would do it together. I actually started getting excited...about running?!?!
What is this world coming to???
So here goes nothing! The run is last weekend of September. Meaning if we buckle down right away we should be at least a little prepared!
So I'm off to look up a new running schedule. Wish me luck and check in with me to keep me on track ;)
In the mean time I leave you with my thoughts.

Here's to doing something that scares you!!!

bali, bali, bali

As our summer vacation is coming close (I mean not super close but enough to give us hope) I have been pondering which destination I will explore next! As I think ahead to other traveling after my contract is finished I decided it would be best to tackle 1 country in my three week stay.

As the title announced...I chose BALI! In general, Indonesia. I'll be traveling (hopefully with some friends) around the various islands. Exploring the culture, people and beaches...

I can't wait to see what this new destination has in store!...and good luck to KNS. I'm not sure I'll return ;)

happy happy

Even though I am a bit sad that all of my friends are congregating in Pullman to celebrate the end of another school year, I am overwhelmed with pride for my friends who are graduating tomorrow. So it is a happy weekend! Happy, Happy!

fire building

Some of my dear friends are leaving Taiwan for their next adventure in life :( but in order to give them a proper send off we had a huge bbq in their honor! In true PNW style it rained almost all day...as in like pouring. Luckily we had giant umbrellas and cover so we managed to stay dry but not clean!
We went to this great place outside of town where they fix you up with a pile of food to be wrapped in newspaper and then placed in a hand made rock oven/pile.
When we arrived we were instructed to gather rocks and dry mud. It started with this.

We then wrapped all the food and got to work building! It was so rainy that we had a hard time getting from the mud/rock/wood site back to our kiln that we were covered in mud by the end of the process!

The final product was this! A large pyramid of rocks with a fire stoking inside.

 The rocks would heat up until the were all black and hottttt!

  

We then broke open the top, dropped all of our food inside and began to shovel like mad. We filled loose dirt and mud on top of it so the mound then looked like this.

The food sat in there for two hours and cooked to utter perfection! We had a bbq going all day so the two chickens that came out of our oven was the perfect amount for the 20 of us there. It was a great day. All be it, very rainy but a good way to spend time with good friends!

the rules for being amazing

I wish I knew the rules or had come up with them on my own. But during one of my latests internet pinterest research sessions I found this great little picture. I loved all the words that it said. They couldn't be truer.

Today, do something amazing.

Home

Every once and a while you forget what home looks like. When all you see day to day is Chinese writing, large concrete buildings and smog you forget just how beautiful some parts of the world really are.
All day long I dream of laying on a beach, staying in a little cabana and a drink in my hand. But today I will dream of this....