Always an Adventure...

Tuesday, October 18: My poor little old scooter had a rough day today! It has been through a lot in the 3+ years I have owned it. Since I bought it from a teacher who was moving back to the U.S. for about US$200, it has driven me through rainy Yilan winters, made it all the way around Taiwan, and carried many guests, including my grandma, not to mention getting me to and from all the various schools I teach at. This semester, I need to drive almost twice as much and started thinking about upgrading a little, after all my little scooter was already 12+ years old when I bought it.  Now 3 years later, I was thinking it was time to switch. But I was still a little hesitant, did I really need a new scooter? Was this a good investment? I’d been to look at some secondhand scooters last week, and still hadn’t reached a decision. Then two very odd things happened today. First, when I went to drive to school this afternoon, I found that my rear tire was almost completely flat. I ended up...

Our first week in Yuli October 16, 2004 I arrived in Taiwan with no idea what I'd be getting into. I was originally only planning to be here for one year... but 7 years later I can say that I truly enjoy my life here. It still feels a little surreal that it's really been 7 years. They do all kind of blend together after awhile, there was the year in Yuli, the year I broke my leg, the year I started commuting to Taipei, and so much in between. A song that I've been listening to a lot lately is Never Once by Matt Redman, and part of the lyrics say: Scars and struggles on the way//but with joy our hearts can say// Yes our hearts can say// never once, did we ever walk alone// never once, did you leave us on our own// you are faithful//God you are faithful I've had plenty of struggles along the way, and one long scar down my left ankle, but it's true God has been so faithful in big and little things, and it is true, never once in these 7 years have I ever walked ...

Fun facts about Sun Moon Lake it is in Nantou county in the center of Taiwan it took us about 2 hours to get into the water after we registered there were over 20,000 participants in the swim I got kicked a lot we had a group of 13 we were interviewed just before getting in the water and were spotted on tv by friends  we swam 3.3km  it took me 2.5 hours I got a certificate, towel, and polo shirt for completing the swim they had rest stations every 100 meters where you could get water, chocolate, rice and other things for free we were required to wear the orange swim caps we were issued and bring a flotation device into the water the two oddest things I saw people bring into the water with them were a basketball and an umbrella maybe I should have brought an umbrella too, because I did get sunburned, and had a nice swim cap line across my forehead it was a great time... will I do it again? maybe in another 10 years... Before at the starting line ...

Ok, so I kind of fell off the 30 before 30 wagon, but I still have almost 7 months!! There are a number of things I was going to post about or wanted to post about... but it just didn't happen. I achieved two of my 30 before 30 goals, going to Hollywood (see pics here ), and swimming across Sun Moon Lake which really does deserve a post of its own. I also had a very eventful trip home, which included a trip to Banff with my sweet nephew, my grandparents' 50th anniversary, and my great grandmother's funeral (she also has a tribute post all written in my head) One of the reasons I haven't been posting is that I've been having issues with Chrome, which is the browser I normally use, not working, causing me to lose a couple of entries :S But I just set up email posting, so if I can get that figured out, maybe you'll suddenly see a lot more posts! This semester, I got a huge surprise when I found out I wouldn't be continuing my weekly commute to Taipei. In...