Always an Adventure...

Hi Friends, I'm alive and back in Yilan. Last Friday we drove up and with the help of some medicine I didn't even get carsick! But it was a long curvy ride. I'm so thankful for the Yos who turned around and did it again in the same day. We stopped in the hospital and jumped in line in front of about 15 people....oops.. and changed my bandages had my doctor look at it for a minute and then were gone. When I got back to my apartment it was a big gong show, culminating in a spectacular fall by yours truly. It really wasn't my fault. My crutches are really old "ghetto crutches" and one of the bottoms has been a little slippery since I got them, but when it combined with my tile floor, it just couldn't hold out anymore. Unfortunately for me, i was using it on my left side... and when it slipped out from under me, guess what went crashing down.... yes... my bad foot hit against the floor, causing a lot of pain, and giving us all a heart attack. Thankfully I grab...

I met with some bad news yesterday.... I'm very sad to say that my dear Hello Kitty bike is no longer with us. Way back when, on Thursday, October 5, I parked it in front of the train station, figuring it would be safe for the 5 days I was going. I could have parked it at the church, but I didn't feel like walking back to the train station with heavy bags, and didn't really have the extra time. So I parked her out in the open, vulnerable to the elements and the eyes of passing thieves. Of course you know by now that 5 days came and went without me returning. In fact, tomorrow will be 3 weeks that I've been away from Yilan. I mentioned it to my coworker while I was in the hospital, hoping someone could check on it for me, and perhaps move it to a safer place. Last Monday she helped me look, and it was still there ! I was really excited even though I won't actually be riding a bike any time soon. Unfortunately, she hadn't brought my key with her, so they left it ...

Lately I've been having some really wierd dreams which all seem to be centered around my crutches. In the first one one of my friends was "holding" my crutches for me, but they kept walking too far ahead of me to catch up and get my crutches back. I kept trying to follow them, hopping on one foot and stepping on my broken foot and calling after them to wait. Every time i lost my balance, I would think "I'm not allowed to put any weight on this foot yet!"　The funny thing was that we went across a lot of different types of terrain in this dream, including stairs and a flower garden. Last night I dreamt that one of my crutches kept shrinking until the end of the dream I was trying to walk with a stick!　The other one was still normal size, so I was really off balance, again, forcing me to walk on my bad ankle. In that dream I was trying to go to class at the girls' high school, where I have to cross a wide track field to get to my classroom. I don't thin...

HowManyOfMe.com There are: 0 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name? According to this website, there is no one with my last name in the U.S. I don't know if that's accurate, but there ARE　253,473 people in the U.S. with the first name Charlotte. 　That's pretty spiffy. Actually I've only met 3 other Charlottes in my life. The most popular names among my students tend to be Amy and Tina for girls and Tony and Kevin for boys. My most unique student name this semester is Andoreare.

What I miss : coffee (Dr. said no coffee or tea for awhile), my apartment, being able to walk/shower etc without difficulty Favorite distractions :　Watching movies (Phantom of the Opera and Narnia today), reading books on lend from Joey, including Inkheart and The Dragon Rider I'm thankful for : this family who has really made me feel like part of their family, milk, my MP3 player, time to call people (if i had your number saved on my skype) Newly discovered website :　 www.mybrokenleg.com Looking forward to :　Going to church tomorrow, teaching classes again, making all my students try to stand up using only one leg, no more crutches (i don't think i should be thinking about it yet!) What I need: 　better ways to carry things around, ideas about how to change my teaching style, prayers, to shave my legs (maybe that should go under "random gross fact") I was tagged by Amanda for this meme, which I like to do if they spark my interest and I have time (one thing i'm no...

After surgery, they didn't let me get out bed for 5 days! Fortunately, the bed could be adjusted into a sitting or flat position. The only problem was i couldn't adjust it myself, so everytime i wanted to move i had to ask someone to turn the crank at the end of the bed for me! I also had kind of a "DIY" painkiller. It automatically released some medicine every hour, and any time I felt pain I could press a button to release more into my IV. Actually I didn't use it that much because, amazingly I didn't feel so much pain after the surgery! Actually I had been afraid of this, and I'd asked the doctor beforehand - "Will it still hurt this much after surgery" and he said well, maybe. But the pain was reduced dramatically, probably in part thanks to that fun little machine. This added a whole new set of challenges though in the realm of changing clothes. I had to get the sleeve of each shirt over all the needles and wires, and finally over the saline...

Time for me to relate more about what happened in the last little while. After my ambulance ride down Taroko Gorge (which is still beautiful even when you're in pain), I ended up in the nearest hospital, which happened to be the military hospital, also known as "Ba ling wu." I'm not exactly sure why. Since that day was a holiday it was really really difficult for me to get ahold of ANYONE. People here turn their cell phones off during holidays so work can't reach them I guess. Finally I reached Joy, my co-worker in Hualian, and she came to the hospital as soon as she could. By then I'd had x-rays, and the doctor had set my ankle as best as he could (another of the most painful experiences in my life). They told me I would need surgery, and wanted to know if I wanted to do it there or go back to Yilan first. Going back to Yilan didn't seem like a very good choice at the time so I decided to stay there and surgery was scheduled for the next morning. I got in...

I'm not sure if i should post this on my Chinese blog or my English blog, but Ｉhaven't learned the characters for these words yet, just the sounds. As with a lot of natural language learning i followed the order of listen, speak, read, write. Nothing like "authentic situations" for learning a language: Jiao huai - ankle Tuo jiu le - dislocated kai dao - surgery bing ren - patient (bing actually means sick, but it covers all those staying in the hospital) hao tong! - it hurts zi tong yao - painkillers yi yuan - hospital chu yuan - leave the hospital shi gao - cast san ku - wound bian pen - bed pan hua, hua hua de - slippery, to slip, to slide xie xie ni di zhao gu - thanks for taking care of me

Hi friends, have i ever got some stories for you!! In the last week I've had my first experience with a lot of things, including anaesthetic, crutches and bedpans (which I have now become an expert at using in english and chinese). I just arrived in yuli this afternoon and am staying with my dear friends the Yos for the next week or so. I'll update more in the quiet days to follow. Thanks for coming by and for praying for me if you did. it's been really crazy. I've been so overwhelmed with the kindness of friends and strangers alike during this time, bringing me food, helping me do things i used to be able to do by myself, and making me feel very cared for. I'll write more soon.

I n case you were wondering why it's been longer than usual (has it?) since I've updated my blog, have I got a story for you!Actually, I'm writing this from the hospital and my friend is helping me post it. My long weekend started off really well and camping was great. It was only on the last day that things took a turn for the worse... On Tuesday morning I slipped when I was walking and felt something "pop." It was really wierd and painful. I rested for about 20 minutes, and founds I could still stand, so I figured it was OK. I felt more pain as I was going up the stairs to go home, and then it happend: I lifted my leg to get on the scooter, putting all my weight on the other leg,then promptly collapsed. It was one of the strangest feelings in the world. Like there were no bones in my leg. I lay on the ground screaming and drawing a large crowd of onlookers. Later I would discover that I had dislocated my ankle and fractured my tibia. Have I mentioned yet that th...

Happy birthday to my mom and happy Thanksgiving next weekend! I found some turkey wings in the grocery store here, so I just might try to have a mini-solo-Thankgiving dinner here. It happens to fall on the same weekend as Mid-Autumn Festival here this year. Since October 10 is Taiwan's national holiday, we end up with a 5 day weekend! My plan: going camping!!! I'm really excited about it, and hopefully will get lots of fun pictures. I'm going to a place we visited once when we lived in Yuli with a bunch of families from there. I barely had any students today because they were participating in a science competition. So I only had about 15 students per class. Why can't that happen on the days I have the class with 53 instead of 33?? It's hard to believe October is here again, this month will mark 2 years in Taiwan. And I just passed my one year anniversary in Yilan. Good times. Kids of all ages love the strawberry slippers.

On Wednesday night I had a long-awaited sleepover with my Chinese teacher's daughters. I'd had the idea in the summer once I'd moved into my new apartment, but it just hasn't happened until now. Since I didn't have class on Thursday, it was a good time. My Chinese teacher has 4 kids, Esther, 10; Rebecca, 8; Deborah, 3; and Gloria, 1. The two oldest stayed at my house, but they all came over beforehand to play. They had originally planned to come over around 7, but by the time they got here it was almost 9! They enjoyed looking at some pictures and playing with various "cool stuff" they spotted around my room. After mom and two youngest left, we got on with the fun! I'd prepared the ingredients for Snickerdoodles, and we baked cookies together, playing a fun card game while we waited for them to cook. Next I painted their nails (though afterward they informed me that they're not allowed! When asked "Why didn't you tell me?" they innoc...

Playing with my "cool stuff" 

Everyone loves the strawberry slippers! 

The two youngest thought my house was fun too! 

Baking cookies 

 

 

 

Good morning!