I Heart the Beach!

Am I hot or what?!

 Cijin Beach, Kaohsiung Taiwan!

 Cijin Beach!

I tried to float away on the cement blocks, but was sad to discover that they are not very buoyant :( 

 Wanggang Beach, Wanggang Taiwan!

 Wanggang Beach!

I started singing Don Quixote when I saw the windmills and dedicated the song to Nate.

Wanggang Beach!

 Green Island, Taiwan!

Green Island!

 Green Island!

"What? Your super hot brother is single, is extremely righteous, loves children and speaks Russian fluently and you have a sister named AnnaLisa? I'll be moving into the house next door at 8:00.

 Laguna Beach, California, USA!

 Laguna Beach!

 Laguna Beach!

Dana Point, California!

I left Taiwan in early January and arrived in California later in January, how do you think I got here? I swam of course, thus why I am at the beach.

 Aliso Point, California!

 Aliso Point!

 Aliso Point!

It's Valentine's Day and I'm at the beach. Naa, naa, naa, naa.

 St. Anne's Beach, California!

"Up where they walk, up where they run. Up where they spend all day in the sun. I want to be part of that world."

 Laguna Beach, California!

It works for the seagulls why not me. (Maybe if I flapped my arms a little faster)

St. Anne's Beach!  

Caption Contest! Anyone who would like to submit a caption, please do so in the comment section. The contest winner will receive a copy of Man of La Mancha, the Communist Manifesto, or Pirates of Penzance as recorded by AnnaLisa, whichever you choose.  Kristina has already submitted her entries as seen above.

What Have I Been Up To? I've Been Up To No Good!

 I've been doing some modeling gigs to show off this awesome scarf this company in Taiwan gave to me after I paid them some money :)

You can use the scarf as a skirt!

 You can use it as a regular scarf! 

 And you can use it as a vest!

 I've been donating old clothes and shoes to charities and the garbage man.  Old papers to the recycling bin and trash can while cleaning out my room.

Yay! Gone forever!

I've been enlightening my mind by reading books! 

I've been exploring my many different options of destinies online :) 

Doesn't she look like me?  OK not really, but we can pretend. OK, I think that's all for now. I love you. Bye Bye. 

I Love to See the Temple!

 I'm back from Taiwan, just in case you couldn't tell from my previous post.  I miss Taiwan.  I must say it's a little hard for me to even write this post knowing that Taiwan will no longer be the top post.  I know that sounds funny, but I just miss it.

 Not to say that I don't love it here in America!  Because I do.  I just have to get back to real life now.  On to finding a new job again and finding a place to live and making new friends etc. 

Actually right now I'm visiting my sister, Kristina and her family, in Southern California.  I've been here exactly two weeks and I've grown to really like it here.  It's a nice place! 

Kristina and Tom don't live far from this temple.  I've seen it a few times since I've been here, but I have not been able to get pictures of it until yesterday morning.  It was a beautiful, clear, warm day! 

Kristina got a picture of me taking the picture above.  I don't know why but I thought it was kind of funny ;)

I think this temple and its grounds are so beautiful!

I decided to try and get some different shots on my camera, so I used the color accent feature. 

My adorable niece, Madeline, matched the flowers at the temple!

Even the grounds at the temple are peaceful!

 

Madeline and I!

Kristina took this picture of cute little Madeline!  She loved the fountains!

 My beautiful sister, Kristina and her adorable daughter, Madeline!  Thanks for letting me stay with you and taking me around to some cool places!  More posts to come about my adventures in California....

I Miss Taiwan!

 And these crazy little kiddos!  Some of my 2As.  (LtoR in front Sean, the blurry one; Andy, holding the ice cream; Billy, in the orange shirt; Allen, behind Sean's head; Joan, in the striped shirt with her head cut off; Angel, in  the pink shirt)

LtoR Steve, always laughing;  Angel, trying to stay away from Peter; Peter, trying to get close to Angel :)

 Our first attempt at a class picture with the self-timer!

 Our second attempt!

 Our third attempt! At least we can see everyone's face, even if some are a little blurry ;)

 Joan and Angel!  They are very well behaved and two of the smartest kids in class.

 And these smart kiddos too! These are my 5As!  They wanted the drawings on the whiteboard to be in the picture. (LtoR Sheena, Mia, Monica (sitting), Willy, Luke, Linda, Me)

 Our second attempt at a class picture!

 Sheena, in front; Monica in the back wearing purple; and Willy

 LtoR in front Luke and Linda; in back Mia and Willy

 And these adorable little cuties! LtoR Sandy (Barbi and Eilleen's Mom), Barbi, Eilleen, me.  These two sisters are some of the cutest kids ever.

 And this cute little stud from my beginner class, Stanley!  I love this little man!

 And this funny and silly boy from my beginner class, Scott! I also love this boy!

 And this adorable, smart, spunky little girl in my beginner class, Penny! I love this little girl!

I love all of my students so much! 

And my awesome university students!  These aren't all of them, but a few.  LtoR in front Grace, in the pink sweater; Emily, me, Ruby, with the thumbs up, and the boy who wasn't in my class and I can't remember his name;) in middle Amy Shi, Mei, in the green/yellow shirt; in back Turtle with the glasses, Andy, and Peggy.

I love and miss all of my students!  I left a little part of my heart in Taiwan when I left.  I don't know if they will remember me, but I will remember my kiddos/students and my friends forever!

University Presentations!

 Wow! I've had some very interesting experiences since I've been here in Taiwan! Teaching English to children, teaching English to university students, presenting medals at an athletic award ceremony, traveling on a boat where I feared for my life, riding on a couple of 3-hour train rides standing up or sitting on the floor, having complete strangers asking to take their pictures with us, giving a 20-minute presentation about BYU in front of 60 university students. I could literally go on and on, but I will stop and talk about the last one.

 So you see that sign that we're holding?!  Of course you do. Well that sign was for us.  Yeah, we had posters made for us to inform the students of our presentations.  Karyn, Kailey, Liz, and I all gave 20 minute presentations about the universities we attend or attended.  Let's just say our schools should be happy for the good word we put in for them :)

 I was first! I was going to be second, but we had some technical difficulties and I ended up going first.  Sadly, I had no internet connection and I had some awesome videos I really wanted to show.  But it's all good!  I had a slideshow with quite a few pictures and I just talked and sang a little bit too.   

Yes I sang a cappella in front of this crowd.  I was scared, but I did it. I sang the Cougar Fight Song and they loved it.  I was way off key and shaky, but they liked it.  They were clapping with the beat and cheering for me at the end.  (Apparently the universities here don't have fight songs and so they were way excited to hear one.) At the end of the presentation, they shouted for an encore of the fight song.  So I sang it again.

 I just love this picture because of all of our eyes in this picture.  We look like we're robots ready to destroy the classroom.

I was so nervous giving this presentation.  I know I was talking really fast at times and that my voice was shaky too, but it's over.  It IS over.
 

 The audience!

 More of the audience!  This might have been while I was speaking. I'm not sure though.

 Since the internet was not working in the other room, we changed to this room for the other presentations.  I put this picture up because Grace is in this picture (she's the one smiling in the front).  I talked about Grace in my last post.  She's the one who got Karyn, Kailey, Liz and I to present the medals at the award ceremony at the track and field event.  Grace is awesome!  She speaks English very well and she is so nice.   

 This was at the end for the Q&A session! 

Kailey, me, Liz, and Karyn!  What an experience!