Always an Adventure...

note: i was on varying levels of pain medication during the writing of this blog, so just ignore random tense and voice switches! Wednesday 3:30pm : arrive, sign a multitude of papers, and take an x-ray etc. By 5 I’m in my room and have had blood taken and the iv needle taped into my hand I got a window seat! Oh wait I mean bed… roommate arrives around 6:30 , an 82 year old lady also getting some kind of leg surgery. Find out that she only speaks Taiwanese and Japanese, but I have a chat with her granddaughter. I ask if I can go out for a little while (for a walk or something) and they say “sure, just wait until the anesthesiologist comes to see you” well at 10am the next day, I still haven’t seen him grrr… Had some visitors, and put my hair into little braids, partly for something to do, partly so I wouldn't have to worry about doing anything with it for a couple of days. Partly because I'd never go to class with hair like that, so this is one of the only times I can ...

Tomorrow I go into the hospital to get ready for surgery on Thursday morning. Most of the metal in the above x-ray will be taken out (some was already taken out last year). The good thing is my bone is completely healed, and it will be great to get all the "hardware" out, and hopefully after that will be 100% healed. The bad thing is, it seems like I'll have to go back before I go forward... after the screws are taken out, there will be small holes in the bone that need to be healed, and I'll be susceptible to re-injury for a couple of months if I do fall again or get into any kind of accident. So my summer activities will be a little limited, not to mention no swimming until the incision site is healed AGAIN.... and no coffee, tea or cola for awhile, I've already been off them for about a week. I miss my coffee! I've been drinking a lot of milk and soy milk though. I was thinking that this time will be better since I know in advance that I'm having the su...

Well I'm officially the owner of a scooter now after more than three and a half years in Taiwan! Most people don't wait that long, but I do enjoy riding my bike, and I had complications with getting my license last time if you recall... I AM planning to get one soon though, don't worry! The transfer was really quite fast and painless. I was surprised! Thankfully there were no issues with me not having a driver's license. The funniest thing about the whole process was that the people at the motor vehicle office couldn't seem to tell me apart from the girl I was buying the scooter from, even though we looked NOTHING alike! She was holding our photo IDs and asked "whose is this?" Another funny thing about living here...

Last Sunday was the wrap-up for my English bible study! We'd been planning the party for awhile, and students invited their friends and family to come. We had singing, games, a potluck dinner, and then watched a movie on the big screen outside. There was TONS of food. I made a chocolate orange cake and a pasta salad. As you can see there were 2 tables alone just for fruit and dessert. There were another 4 tables for food. Here's Janet and her son Roy making fish-shaped pancakes (waffles?) in a waffle maker they brought from home! Another adorable 10 year old student proudly showed off the scrambled eggs he brought. I was really happy about how many people showed up! Some students from my classes at the schools came too. here's everyone getting ready to sing. I looked up during the program and saw this amazing sunset and had to snap a picture! It felt like a message from God. Actually it was like a miracle on Sunday. We weren't sure the weather would cooperate. And it P...

This past Sunday was Dragon Boat Festival. No long weekend this year! After church (where we ate traditional rice dumplings - zongzi for lunch), some of us decided to go to nearby Dongshan river to see if there were still some races going on. We got a nice spot near the finish line. Here are the boats turing around after their race. Actually, we got there fairly close to the end, so we only saw a few races, but it was nice just to get out for awhile. The weather was great. As you can see, tons of people flocked here. Parking was a nightmare.... I'm glad I wasn't driving! Here's the end of a race, one team clearly in the lead. Good friends, Su-wan, Pastor Jane, and Sunny. Albert, our driver took the picture. Sorry I dont' have a lot to write.. I'm buried under a pile of grading right now... semester's almost over though!

my fate is sealed: I go in for surgery (to take the metal out of my leg) on June 25. Actually the surgery will take place on the 26, one week after my last class of the semester, which is 2 weeks from tomorrow. does that sound complicated? how about this? my work visa expires June 15, which happens to be the same day we're planning our end-of-semester event for the English Bible study, and hopefully my visa will be renewed before then or i might have to leave the country... around that day.... it'll be a close call, but i go pick up my renewed passport on Friday, so hopefully everything will work out with that... I'm also in the process of booking my flights home: looks like the date will be Aug 16 - to Vancouver, then to Castlegar on the 17, heading back to Alberta somewhere in the middle to fly out of Calgary on the 28. If you happen to be in any of those cities, let me know and I'll do my best to see you! As for the summer schedule between June 25 and Aug 16.... it...