Trains and Toilets

So, I have some more stories to share about my adventure in Taiwan with Danielle. I had some new experiences that were unique, to say the least.

One day I went with Danielle and her friend Leah to a city on the south of the island called Tainan. We rode a high speed train to get there, which was pretty cool. Next to airplanes, this was probably my fastest speed of travel so far in my life. What would have taken us 8 hours by normal speed train only took 2, so that was pretty neat. Danielle and Leah had to do some work in Tainan, but we also got to see some of the big sights. We went to a Confucious temple, which was pretty interesting, and to a "castle" built by the Dutch and then rebuilt by the Japanese known as Anping Fort. The trees at the fort had these super long roots hanging down, and we enjoyed taking some pretty funny pictures. We also went shopping in a little market that was super cute. One of my favorite things there were these little waffle type things they made right there on the street in the shape of funny things like a chicken, motorcycle and gun. Brilliant, right? haha. On our train ride back to Taipei that night we found out that we were under a tsunami alert. It was kind of scary for me for a little bit, but praise the Lord nothing ever happened!

Another great adventure was to a very, shall I say unique, restaurant in Taipei called Modern Toilet. Several people on facebook commented that they had seen this place on the Food Network, but I can I just tell you that the real-life experience is far greater than anything you can watch on t.v. It was pure craziness! The toilet was their theme and boy did they stick to it! The food (which was not good at all!) was served in toilet and bathtub shaped bowls. We sat on toilets for our seats and ate on plexi-glass that was covering a bathtub. There were little swirls of pink poop on the wallpaper and poop shaped light fixtures. I told Danielle that I think I only enjoyed this experience because I was in Taiwan and it was so crazy that it was funny. Had I been in America, I probably would have thought it was disgusting. But, we definitely laughed a lot! Modern Toilet was in an area called Ximen, which is a fun pedestrian shopping area. I went there on my last trip too, and it's a great place to roam around and have fun!

Needless to say, these experiences were really fun. All in all, it was a fantastic trip! Taiwan is such a neat country full of beauty and warmth. I'm so glad I had to opportunity to return for a second trip and experience more of its greatness! Danielle was a wonderful host and it was great to get to see her in her element in her Asian home! Although, I must admit, that I'm ready for my best friend to come back to the U.S. in August!

Going and Coming

I'm home, finally! This may have been my most exciting travel experience to date. Going and coming back from Taiwan were both definitely adventures! I had such a wonderful time with Danielle! She is the best and we had so much fun together!!! I will tell you more about my trip in another blog- this post is dedicated strictly to my traveling stories. My, oh my!

Going

I attempted to leave for Taiwan on Thursday, March 3 at 10 a.m. When I arrived at the airport, I found out that because my passport was expiring in less than 6 months (June 25 to be exact) Taiwan wasn't going to let me in their country. So, I ended up having to go and get a new passport that day. It was crazy! But God took care of everything and I had a new passport and flight and was on my way about 8 hours later than anticipated. There were lots of crazy things that day - a parking bus that broke down, immediately followed by a broken escalator and elevator, my new flight to San Francisco was delayed ... it was a lot to take in, but thankfully I was not stressed or worried - I knew that I'd get to Taiwan eventually. My biggest concern was making sure that Danielle knew I wouldn't be coming in at 10 p.m. on Friday, but rather at 6 a.m. on Saturday. She did get the message, which was so good and we talked in the airport in San Francisco before I left for Taipei. I finally arrived at 5 a.m. on Saturday morning and continued a VERY long day until about 9 that night when I crashed.

Coming

As I'm sure all of you are aware, there was an earthquake that hit Japan on Friday, March 11. Well, I was still in Taiwan at that time. We were under a tsunami warning, but praise the Lord, we were not hit at all. I was concerned because I was supposed to be flying back to America via Tokyo on Sunday and so I called to check on my flights and they told me everything would probably be fine. Tokyo wasn't hit that badly and so I was trusting everything would work out. When I got to the airport on Sunday at 8 a.m., I found out that my flight had been delayed until 1 p.m. - I'm assuming because of the earthquake, but no real reason was given. Danielle's friends who brought me to the airport had to get back for church, so I said bye to them and entertained myself in the airport for a long time. I ended up getting sick around 9 a.m., but I think it was just because I hadn't had a lot of sleep. Great way to start the trip, though! haha. I boarded my plane for Tokyo at around 1 and as we were traveling down the runway, I found out that our plane had air conditioner problems and we'd have to get it worked on for a while. We sat on the runway for over an hour and finally left about 3 p.m. When we got to Tokyo, I knew I'd already missed my connecting flight for Dallas and that I'd have to be at the mercy of Japan Airlines to hopefully get back home sometime soon. They rescheduled me on a flight to LA that was leaving within 30 minutes so I rushed to that gate. One good thing was I was bumped up to Premium seating - which was really nice for my long flight! I had a nice cushy chair with a pop-up foot rest, lots of little amenities and I was able to sleep most of the time! I arrived in LA at 1 p.m. their time and was so thankful to be back on American soil! I had a four hour lay-over in LA, so I bonded with some of my fellow travel buddies who I'd been with since Taipei. There were some really sweet people and we all laughed and bonded over our exhaustion. Our flight ended up being delayed (surprise, surprise) and so I think we finally left LA around 6:30. We landed in Dallas at 11 p.m. - still Sunday to me (maybe the longest Sunday of my life) and when I called my parents they told me they were booking me a hotel for the night. I know they were really worried about me and all my travels - especially since I was by myself. I really just wanted to be home at that point, but since Brownwood is a good 3 hours from DFW airport, it would've been around 3 a.m. by the time I got home. So I took them up on their offer and stayed at the Sheraton that night. It was so nice to be in a bed! I woke up yesterday morning at 7 a.m. and drove back to Brownwood. Whew! I have no idea how many hours of traveling that was- but it was exhausting for sure! I felt like I got hit by a bus. Thankfully I was able to rest yesterday and now, I'm ready for the week!

As you can tell, I had quite a trip! I can't wait to share more about the fun things that I did in Taiwan! It is such a beautiful country, full of wonderful people, including my best friend! I had a blast! But I am glad to be home ... finally!

Taipei Take 2

Ni Hao!

I'm writing from Taipei, Taiwan on my second adventure in this wonderful city. I'm here visiting my best friend, Danielle, in her Asian home. Just like all of my other trips with Danielle, we have been busy pretty much non-stop. We've seen some really beautiful places, had some great food and I've met some wonderful people! There are still times, just like last year, when it just hits me that I'm in Asia. We'll round a corner, and WHOA, a smell will hit me. Or we will be walking down a street laden with flashing signs, millions of scooters and cars, smells and noises everywhere and I will experience a little sensory overload. Sounds fun and exciting, right? It totally is!

Danielle knows so much more about this city this time - she can get around by bus, carry on conversations with the shop owners trying to sell me crazy things and knows where to get all of the best food - like big chicken and jawza. Here are some pictures from the past few days.

Yangmingshan

Sharyl, Danielle and I hiking Yangmingshan Mountain

Dinosaurs at the National Taiwanese Museum

Leah, Danielle and I at the Shilin Night Market

Trying candied strawberrys - an explosion of flavor in your mouth!

Big chicken! It's as big as your face!

Flora Expo - so many gorgeous flowers!

As you can see, we are having a wonderful time! More pictures and stories to come!

Valentine's Jane Austen Style

Yesterday I had one of the most fun parties ever! We had a Jane Austen themed Valentine's party complete with scones, cucumber sandwiches, tea and so many other yummy treats. We watched Sense & Sensibility and the Jane Austen Book Club and just had so much fun! I just love bonding with friends over our adoration for Jane. We discussed our favorite characters and books. It was just a great afternoon of good food, good friends and good movies! I even got to use my grandmother's milkglass tea plates and cups! It was so special! Here are some pictures from our great (hopefully annual) party!

Our delicious spread of food - all scrumptious!

My co-hostess Maria

Heart-shaped chicken salad sandwiches

My teapot from Bath, England - where Jane Austen lived for a while

Jane Austen lovers - Maria, Katie, Beka, Candice, Keren, Jen and me!

Awesome Concerts at HPU!

One of the things I've been doing in my job lately is helping bring concerts to HPU. It's such a fun thing to be involved in! My boss Louise calls them "Concerts by Kalie." haha. It has a nice to ring to it!

A couple of weeks ago we had a little coffee house concert on campus with an up-and-coming contemporary Christian artist named Lindsay McCaul.

Lindsay is precious and so very talented! She was one of the openers for Shane & Shane during their Christmas concert at HPU last semester. She has such a beautiful heart for the Lord and her voice is amazing! Lindsay is definitely going to go places! I can't remember her line-up exactly, but I know she's touring with Jeremy Camp and Casting Crowns in the near future. I'm pretty sure she's going to be a big some day and I can say I knew her when! Here are some pictures from her concert - and if you are interested in listening to her music, you can click here!

I just found out on Friday the next concert we're having is next week! It's going to be so much fun! One of my favorite bands, Addison Road, is coming to perform at a Valentine's banquet on campus. My favorite song right now is Hope Now! It's so good! The lead singer of the band, Jenny Simmons, writes a blog that I love! I don't even know her - but I think she's so funny! I'm looking forward to having them on campus for a great night! And did I mention they are serving steak and lobster and it's free for students with their meal plan? What a deal!

And on March 31st, Brandon Heath is coming with his tour - Leaving Eden - featuring Dave Barnes and Kristian Stanfill. So awesome, right? I'm definitely excited about all of great bands coming to HPU in the next few months! It's going to be great!

Clean Water

There are lots of things in life that we, as Americans, can many times take for granted. Thanks to the ice storm of 2011, I have a new appreciation, make that love, for running water. On Wednesday morning, I woke up and realized that all of the water pipes in our house had frozen. You know what that means, right? No showering, flushing, clean dishes, clean laundry or drinking/cooking water. Wednesday wasn't so bad, Candice and I went over to my friend Kristy's house to shower and we made do the rest of the day. Well, Thursday, the temperature didn't get above 20 degrees, so you know what that meant? Still no water! And Friday? You guessed it! Pipes were still frozen. I will admit that by Friday morning I was in kind of a bad mood about this inconvenience. Dishes were starting to pile up, I needed another shower, my laundry was out of control ... you get the picture. I'm so thankful that I had people to turn to in the midst of my mini-crisis. I headed to my friend Larissa's to shower and then last night Candice and I ended up spending the night with her parents for a reprieve from the seemingly desperate situation.

I came home this afternoon to find that - Praise the Lord - my pipes have thawed out and we have water again! One of the lessons I learned from this experience is to always leave your pipes dripping when a potential freeze is coming - it's amazing how many people told me this AFTER our pipes froze. I'll never forget that lesson!

The other thing I learned, was to truly be thankful for running water. My friend Katie Ellwood reminded me of this earlier this week through this video she made with her brother. For their birthdays this year, they are asking for people to donate money to Charity: Water - an organization that works to bring clean water to the people around the world. Apparently, there are over 1 billion (1,000,000,000!!!) people in the world that don't have clean drinking water. The number is truly astonishing. While I was without water in my home for 4 days, I still had access to clean water in a number of places. These people face EVERY day without clean water. EVERY DAY! I'm sure Katie had no idea how this video would resonate with me personally this week, but I'm thankful for my friend who opened my eyes to a much bigger problem than my 4 days of uncomfortableness.

So, right after I did my dishes, I donated to Katie's birthday goal. Now, I'm going to hop in the shower and enjoy my running water.

Thank you, Lord, for teaching me to be thankful in unique (and sometimes smelly) ways!

Snow Day in Pictures

Today we had a snow day - and I've been loving every minute of it! I decided to get out my new camera and play around with my zoom lens. Turns out it is bitterly cold outside, and there isn't much snow - mostly ice - but I still got a few pictures that I thought were pretty fun. So, here's how I spent my snow day:


I made beef stew and chocolate chip cookies for dinner, so if you're hungry ... come on over! :) Except my roomie has strep - so it's probably not a good idea. Maybe next time!