Always an Adventure...

We had a typhoon last weekend, and it was pretty big, but I didn't have any problems except for not wanting to go out in the pouring rain. This weekend I went out with some ladies from the church, and saw some of the damage the typhoon had done in some more rural areas, saw lots of trees ripped out at the roots and what not. The highlight of our time together was a drive up the north eastern coastal highway. There are a few scenic rest areas along the way at which I took a ton of pictures: In the distance you can see Turtle Island (龜山島）which is just off the coast of Yilan county. You can take tours out there, but you have to apply in advance since it's a protected natural area. It can be seen from various angles (including the angle at which it actually resembles a turtle) in a number of the pictures below. Taiwanese ladies with their umbrellas! Rain or shine they must protect themselves from the elements haha. Maybe I should have followed suit since I ended up getting sunburnt...

This is a really powerful song by Jars of Clay, and the video is quite amazing too. I found out that the lead singer of Jars of Clay went to Africa and his experience moved him to start a ministry there. Check it out here . You can also support them online.

ok while you're waiting for me to have something interesting to say, here are some pics from the eventful third week of camp at a little place we like to call Jin Gua Shih (well, that's its name) A stop on the way up to the church, golden falls. There are gold and minerals in the water around here making all the rock orange. Since the camp was quite a ways from Taipei, we stayed in a homestay nearby. That in itself was interesting, the owner gave us lectures every morning about how drinking milk is "suicide" (he literally said that) and then fed us his own concoctions of soy milk and fruit/vegetable (heavy on the vegetable) smoothies. We got desperate and made a (over 30 minute) Starbucks run on the last day. Only half of our team went, but apparently the Starbucks was just opening (they were setting up but not selling coffee yet...) eventually they got us our 10 Ventis after they found out it was for Vickie! (She's really famous here in Taiwan, since she's be...

Ok I've been back in Yilan for exactly 24 hours and taught class this morning. Actually it went quite well. I'm not too terribly tired, though I slept for 3 hours this afternoon. I have enough energy now to give an account of my travels home. On Friday night after the wedding I double checked the airport shuttle paper only to find that it was booked for August 12. I called them at 1:30 am and fortunately was able to change it! The next morning we had breakfast and packed before taking Cara and Steve to the London airport. Then I had about an hour to spend with Johanna's parents and niece Ally, who are about the sweetest people in the world. They took me for lunch and then we went to wait for the shuttle, which was late. I wasn't too worried since my flight wasn't until 7pm and the shuttle would take me there at 1:30. It pulled up just as the Brittains were starting to wonder if they needed to drive me to Toronto. The ride to the airport was pretty quick and when I w...

The wedding was wonderful! Weddings do tend to be, but I think it was a really great day. Things were a little tense in the morning but in the afternoon everyone was just mellow and quiet. Us girls got ready at Johanna's parents' house which filled up just before the ceremony. I posted more info and pictures on facebook, which you can view here . This was my first time as maid of honor, and I could see the difference in level of responsibility (and amount of stuff in my purse). It was a lot of fun though, and sooo exciting to see my ex-roomie marrying a great guy. Jo's dress was gorgeous, though a bit of a pain getting her into it, there were these little white plastic snaps that did NOT want to stay done up, and the bustle broke about 10 minutes after we'd put it up....sigh....just unnecessary stress for the bride. the ceremony was lovely and i got a little misty, but managed not to cry until the very end when i said goodbye for the last time before they left. The rece...

Before 1998, West Edmonton Mall owned more submarines than the Canadian Navy . Updating from the San Francisco airport, expect more ramblings in the next 14 hours.... as well as wedding pictures!

Well hello everyone from chilly Ontario. Actually I think I'm the only one who finds it chilly, probably lack of acclimatization from Taiwan! I arrived here on Tuesday morning and have been hanging out with Jo and her family as well as Nolan and the rest of the wedding party. So far things have been going well and we've managed to have a little fun among all the wedding planning-ish stuff. They're getting married tomorrow (Friday) evening, so just a short time left. Today we're having a fun day including a bachelor/bachelorette party (going to some kind of amusement park, then out for mexican and back here for a bonfire). The wedding rehearsal was last night and went pretty smoothly. When the pastor asked for my address for the marriage license I wasn't sure what to tell him! Actually this was the second time this trip I needed my parents' street address which I couldn't produce. I wrote my Taiwan address down for him. The lady at Canada customs was a little...

So I finally made it to Indianapolis at 11:30pm on Friday night. It was lovely to get some sleep and I'm not too jetlagged so far. I've been gorging myself on good food and spending lots of money... you know a typical visit to North America for most expats. Only a couple more days here so i'm not going to waste precious Hope time blogging, but here's a picture! Aren't we cute?

I'm writing from the Chicago airport, it's 7:50 local time, and already getting toward 9am Taiwan time. I got up at 6:30am YESTERDAY... so I've been up for going on 27 hours. I had a really hard time sleeping on the plane since we left at noon, it's been a wierd trip. Taipei to San Francisco was ok, i've noticed how the big, long, far flights tend to go much smoother than the short local reigional small flights...why is that? I arrived in San Francisco and went through US airport security for the first time since 2004.... i felt like we practically had to strip down. Shoes off, belts off, anything metal of course, then any liquids and gels out of your bag in their own bag (lost a perfectly good toothpaste today btw) and laptops out of their cases in a separate box. So each person going through is literally peeling off their items and filling 2-4 boxes full of all their stuff. Even sweaters with no buttons, zippers, or pockets had to come off... I guess it is for our...