I Miss Taiwan!

I miss Taiwan!  I think about it everyday.  A little piece of my heart was left in Taiwan.  I met some awesome people while I was there.  Here are a few of them.  (Most of this post was written not long after I got back from Taiwan in January so the time references are from then).

Elna and I switched off teaching the Gospel Principles class every other week.  Elna is married and has two adorable daughters. She's from the Philippines.  She's only been a member for a couple of years and she is amazing!  I love this lady!

 

Amy oh Amy!  Amy is 17.  She is my friend!  She came over to our house quite a bit.  She is hilarious!  She is one of the most thoughtful people I know. 

This is my friend, Joseph.  He's 17 years old and he is hilarious! He loves speaking English and he is sooooo funny!  I don't know how to express how funny this boy is :)

  

Tiffany just got baptized about a month or two ago!  She was one of my university students and we got to go to her baptism!  She is one of the nicest people ever!  She is always so happy and she is a good example to all those around her!

 

This is Sister Brownell! Tim's friend, James Leavitt, told me to look for Sister Brownell when I came to Taiwan.  I met her on the first Sunday I was there.  Her ward met in the same building our little English branch did.  We talked quite a bit after that.

Ogi!  Ogi is from Mongolia!  He was baptized last year, I believe.  He came to the Gospel Principles class. He's such a good guy and he has a really nice accent :) 

Amy and Tricia!  Tricia was my old roommate in Provo the semester right before my mission.  We became really good friends in Provo and  I got to see her three times while I was in Taiwan!  Yay! 

Linda, our cook at school!  She is so funny and spunky!  Although she didn't speak very much English and all of us teachers knew very, very little Chinese, we became friends with her.  She is so funny and she is an amazing cook!

My university students!  This isn't all of them, but some of them!  They all are so unique and awesome in their own way!

My 2As.  Oh how I love them! They were a talkative little group but they were awesome!  They're smart kiddos! 

 My 5As.  The very different personalities they each had made the class very interesting!  They're awesome! 

 Our boss Sherry!  I learned a lot from her and am grateful for the chance she gave me to go to Taiwan and teach at her school.

We became friends with the 7-11 ladies.  There was a 7-11 near our school that we went to often and these two girls were always there!  We all cried saying goodbye to them.  Seriously. 

Grace! She was one of Liz's university students. I've talked about her in this post and this post.  She is awesome! 

 The grocery store lady.  I do not know her name, but she was always so kind to us.  Neither of us spoke each others language but she tried to help us learn Chinese.  She is so cute! 

My awesome roommates and "fellow foreign people." :)  Liz, Karyn, Kailey and I!

Happy 28th Birthday to Me!

On my 28th birthday I dressed up as a princess and went to Disney on Ice at the Patriot Center with some of my friends and watched a princess themed show...

It was a lot of fun! Emma, Ellie and Kara dressed up also.  There were lots of little kids dressed up there but I think Kara and I were the only adults dressed up besides the princesses... but it was worth it. It just added to the experience.  It was my first time ever going to Disney on Ice and I loved it!   I am not quite sure what I imagined, but it was a lot better than I thought.

The Princess and the Frog, Cinderella, and Tangled were the three shows they performed.  The picture above is when Tiana is talking to the frog and the frog wants her to kiss him.

Little did Tiana (or Prince Naveen) know that kissing him would also turn her into frog.   

You can see Louis the alligator and Ray the firefly and Mama Odie and Tiana in this picture.  The choreography was quite amazing!  And look at the costumes Louis the alligator and Ray the firefly were skating in... it was pretty awesome! 

Cinderella and her wicked step sisters.

The mice who help Cinderelly make her first dress and then become the horses of her carriage to go to the ball.  Also look at the costumes they were skating in.

At the ball when Cinderelly is walking in and everyone is amazed by her.

Dancing with the Prince!

Tangled!  Flynn Rider stealing the crown.

Flynn getting caught...

Then getting away and going into the tower where Rapunzel lives.  Rapunzel does not like the man in her tower, so she hits him on the head with her frying pan.

Flynn trying to be cool and suave with Rapunzel.

She doesn't like that so much...

Dancing with Rapunzel's hair!  They did some awesome tricks with her hair.

They're flying!  Flynn had a wire attached to him but Rapunzel appeared to not have one on her.  It was pretty spectacular and entertaining; the strength to hold on and do tricks while in the air. 

Look at the horse.  And yes there are people in that horse costume skating.... I was amazed by the people in that costume :)

Me, Emma, Ellie and Kara!  The four of us who dressed up!  I wish I would've gotten a picture of all of us who went, but alas we did not get one with all of us.  But Michelle, Heather G, Ruth, and Liz were also there.  Thank you all for coming!  It was a memorable and unforgettable birthday!

Overall the show was awesome!  The skaters were professionals.  The costume design was colorful and as true to the stories as can be done live.  The choreography was amazing!  The atmosphere was fun! 

Also thanks to Kara for letting me use your photos for my blog!

Tosca, Phantom, and Les Mis!

I am writing this post for journaling purposes.  I want to remember these things I have done so I am writing them here.

Tosca (September 22) - About a month ago some friends and I went to the Nationals Baseball stadium.  We did not go to see a game, but to watch an opera.  The Kennedy Center (at the time) had performances of Tosca (an Italian opera). They broadcasted the opera live to the stadium onto the big screen there.  Not only did we watch the opera for free on the big screen at the stadium but we sat on blankets on the playing field (near second base, I believe).  It was an awesome experience!

Kara, Nani and I at Opera in the Outfield.  The person taking the picture also was with us, but I cannot remember her name right now.

Les Miserables (October 12) - Can I just say how much I like the story of Les Miserables?! Well I do.  I went to see it at the Kennedy Center a couple of weeks ago.  It was amazing!  Jean Valjean was superb!  He has played Jean Valjean for 7 years now and he knows what he is doing...  He was awesome!  I loved when he sang "Bring Him Home."

I like how Jean Valjean strives to become a better person after the bishop defended him and gave him a chance at a normal life and gave his soul for God.  He changes for the better.  He is an honest man and works hard to do what is right.  I like Jean Valjean :)

I also like Eponine because I think we can all relate to her.  She loves Marius but he does not love her back (at least not in the way that she likes him).  I think that's happened in everyone's life. Unrequited love...  She is strong and street smart.

I like Javert too.  I know that may seem weird, but I like him.  And I feel that he is trying to do his best at his job.  He's trying to do his duty, but no one likes him for that.  Of course he is a cop so I can see why people might not like him... but I feel Javert is a good soul! 

McKaylee, Kara and I after Les Miserables.  We went together but there was also a big group from our ward there that night too, which we did not know about when we bought our tickets.

Phantom of the Opera (October 5) - One day I was going to see "The Help" at Tyson's Corner, but when I got there I saw that they were playing a recording of a live show from Royal Albert Hall in London of "Phantom of the Opera."  It was only showing for a couple of days so I decided to see that instead. And it was awesome!  The camera work was really good and the performers rocked the house.  It was almost like seeing it live.  

Of course these are not the only things I have done, but these are just the big things recently.  Well I think that is all.  Stay tuned for a post about my birthday at Disney on Ice...

Monticello, Oh How I Love Thee :)

 I went to Monticello in Charlottesville yesterday and I fell in love with it! 

The man in the blue suit coat was our tour guide.  He was an excellent tour guide! He was excited about being there and he was very knowledgeable about Thomas Jefferson and the house and the grounds.

This picture is at the front of the house before we went in.

 We couldn't take pictures inside, so I only have pictures from the outside. Here is the back of the house.  It is beautiful!  I loved the tour of the inside. A lot of the furnishings and paintings and decorations are from the time of Jefferson, so we were not allowed to touch anything, but it was awesome to see!

I loved how Jefferson tried to be efficient with the use of space in the house.  For instance he put a bed in an alcove in the middle of a room and then used the wall space above it as a closet.  Or how he had folding dining room tables that he pulled out and made big when guests were over, then they folded them back up and put them in the corner and used the space for other things.

The house also had lots of windows, which brought in lots of natural light!  

 Just in case you were wondering that's me in back of the house... :)

I found it fascinating that Thomas Jefferson wrote a lot.  He had lots of notebooks with a lot of different stuff in them such as what flowers or plants to plant that year and where, the design of his house, the materials he would need and how much it would cost etc...  He also wrote over 19,000 letters in his lifetime.  That is a lot of letters.

Just one more fascinating tidbit about Thomas Jefferson, most of the cool contraptions Jefferson had in his house, he did not invent but he saw something like it on his trip to Europe and drew a design of it and then had someone here in America build it for him.  I always heard he was an inventor of many things, but according to the tour guide, he only invented one thing.

 After the house tour, I went on the slave tour or Mulberry Row tour.  On this tour we walked a long the road where slave houses once lined the street. We learned that Jefferson had about 200 slaves on his plantation at a time. Most of the slaves did not get enough food and only had one change of clothing to last for a year that were pretty much rags. But those slaves who were nail makers and met their quota each day got more food and a special suit to wear.

The tour was fascinating!  I learned a lot on both of the tours, but alas I cannot write it all here.

Now enjoy some beautiful pictures from the grounds. I saw these flowers and they reminded me of Taiwan, because the last time I saw them was in Taiwan ;) 

The front of the house!

The gazebo thingy in the garden!

This was on the grounds of Monticello!  I loved this flower!  It was soft and unique and I've never seen anything like it before. It's called a Cock's Comb.

I really liked this flower too!  I don't remember the name.

The back of the house again!

A butterfly on the flower!

Me inside the awesome gazebo thing! What a place it would be to sit and read a book or just look out at the beautiful scenery!

The view from the garden!

Another view of the garden! I really liked the trail on the mountain.

This was an accidental picture, but I liked the changing leaves, the top of Jefferson's grave, and the bright blue sky!

Jefferson's grave!

Jefferson's grave looks likes it's glowing!

 

Thomas Jefferson!

 

After I went to Monticello, I decided to go to Carder's Mountain, where they have an apple orchard and pumpkin patch. I didn't pick any apples or pumpkins, but I did buy apple butter.  

But just look at the view! It was worth the drive up the mountain just for the view! 

I loved my little trip to Charlottesville! I fell in love while I was there...  Charlottesville, Monticello, if I could just come and live there...I think I would love it :) 

I can see why Jefferson loved Monticello and the area surrounding it!