Ketchup #2

I promise I really do want to keep up. Ok so BIG CHANGE once more. So back in late Aug.'11. We received word that our rent was going up $100... that's messed up...if it had been around $25 ok maybe... but that... was toooo much. So you remember how I always was of the opinion that once your married, you don't need to be living with parents, family, blah blah blah. So I pretty much kicked that out the door (thats not the right saying is it). Well we talked to my FuMu and they came up with a great idea. We are remodeling a space on the right side of the house... or left. So we have two completely separate entrances. There is a wall b/w the two kitchens. and Nancys old room has been blocked too.... so i just realized you probably don't know my house so all of this is just blah blah blah. Let me get down to the nitty gritty. Ivan and I with help of many lovely friends are remodeling this space, meanwhile living in it, with labor as payment. So we are able to know out some Bills. So far it is going great. With Jah's help this will continue progressing. Sometimes I get a little down thinking WE'RE NEVER GOING TO FINISH!!!!!!!!!!! but its slowly coming along. Biggest problem is I don't have kitchen counters/cabinets, or a sink. But need food so ill be back later

TWO years later!

So yep! It has been about two years now... OH BOY does time fly!!!!!!!!!!!! ... and the thing that I fear the most has slowly become something that I welcome... CHANGE!!!!!!!!!! Change is good... its something that we need in order to continue having that spark, that energy, necessary to continue the BIG Race. Which brings me to why I will try posting more frequently... The friends that I have been closest to seem to peeling away, moving away... etc etc.. Who knows where I'll be at this time next year.... ok so lets update.

September 25, 2010- Wedding Day (ha ha I guess this is a much bigger change! ha ha)

A number of events... In between...

July 14, 2011- Ivan gets much needed Right Knee Surgery. ACL was repaired and the lateral meniscus too... later we learned that McDonald also tore his ACL... so sad...

July 20, 2011- Gabby Leaves for Argentina

So presently we are living out of Rocky Mount while Ivan has to be on crutches. We tried going up to our apartment ... but it was so difficult.. so it would be best to stay here. Although, I do miss home... I can't wait for Ivan to get better... I love being able to take care of my hubby... but I also would enjoy my regularly scheduled sleep pattern... If I keep it up... I may get a what is it a night terror or daymare day terror blah blah blah... Ok so my duzi is in pain.. Time to try and get some shut eye. Bye Bye.

Well I like'd this pic from international picture.. I might update this later.

Rainy Day

Ever since I arrived I have pretty much been in AWESOME! weather for some reason I am always in the right place at the right time as far as weather goes. For example... before I arrived to Taiwan it was really rainy, Skies cleared as soon as Cali arrived! then it was rainy in Danshui but then cleared nice and cool when i arrived deng deng... (etc) Last Thursday was a different story ... it started Wed. Night.. there was thunder and very heavy rain... so much... it woke me up in the middle of the night. Crazy huh! I know! so I had plans to go out in service that day but it was raining way too hard.. i kinda assumed that people would not be out... WRONG! the Taiwanese friends here are still out in the Big Rain! Apparently the foreigners don't usually go out in the rain... not used to it I guess... So I stuck at home ALL DAY! occasionally running out for Lunch ... Dinner... Snacks ... and so forth. Very productive i must say! I'm done packing.. i am hoping Joy will help me take some stuff back... b/c I uhhhh... may have packed too much coming here 〉。《 yep yep we'll see how this goes! Today Friday... I went to have some Mexican food in Danshui and got some really bad attitude from a qipao lady... She was not too nice... at first she was but when i was not totally convinced about her product she was so RUDE... see if i go back pissssss... anyways i talked to the owners back at the Mexican or should I say "mexican" restaurant. They were pretty interesting... the cook is not really even a cook he is Canadian Born family from Guadaljara and he married a taiwanese girl and they opened up a restaurant... he learned the dishes from his Fumu! interesting right!? The place has potential... i wanna go home and learn to cook now... could be very useful in future!!

Cali the Explorer

Hmm... I don't remember exactly where I left off... but let's pick up from Today.. Wednesday.. the 3rd? i dunno... This morning I was gonna go out in service.. but uhhh.. I guess I convinced myself it wasn't until 9:30 so I called up around 8 50 to see when we met. It was 9... so i was like ok .. i guess forget that... I guess I needed a push out of bed so I could at least make it there for an hour... instead i started packing... and putting tags on stuff.. by the way "what do you get a guy as a souvenir ?!" This is so complicated... I think of it over and over again.... I dunno ... Sandy says bring back cookies or cake... so i think that might be what I end up doing... I can't think of anything else... any suggestions?... any ways after studying my watchtower i realized i brought the wrong pinyin one.. Great! now all i got are characters! this is gonna be fun!.. afterwards I wondered over to Taibei mains station... in order not to pay for riding the train I walked it.. not bad.. it was hot.. but i made it... didn't meet any crazy filipinos this time.. i did see a lot of waiguoren though. after hanging around there... i decided I would walk to Taibei 101.. I WAS ON A Mission! (wow it took me a few trys to get the speling of mission right) so i started walking and then the blobs of sweat started getting thicker so i decided i had given a pretty good attempt and took myself down to the train platform and in just a couple of minutes there i was at taibei 101 actually i never really made it there... i went to the Elite mall for some Bibimbap instead... it was too hot to walk another block to 101. the food was good... and a british sounding taiwan chef man explained to me the whole concept of having to mix the dish ... blah blah blah... but hearing his accent was fun ... so i played dumb and gasped Ohhh! ... then i read my mags... and decided to get some ice cream at BigToms again... i got the obama brownie.. delicious... met some snobs and then decided i would walk back home... that way i could see stuff... but just when i started... Joy called me! TUN TUN TUN!!!!! to be continued...

Some Pics

Coming to an end...

Well I have heard that a lot of people have not had opportunity to keep up with this thing.. which is perfectly fine.. I tend to rant I know! Ha ha

So I will some up the past week full of activity.

Sunday 4/26- Went to the Chinese meeting so cool! all peeps were speaking japanese and chinese, there were many bible studies all from china .. along with the really cool Beijing accent!(there is more to this day...)

Monday 4/25- We had to go check into a hotel... we should have just stayed at the sisters house... turns out we were supposed to check in on sunday ... but someone misunderstood ... but good thing .. cuz them rooms were so small!!!!!!! Everything smelled like smoke too! But I guess it was an adventure.

Tuesday 4/26- We walked around the city for a while in Fukouka, Japan and then had to rush back to the hotel where the sister would pick us up... while we were rushing to the taxi... we saw some witnesses on the street (that was so COOL to me ... made the trip worth it... everything is expensive in Japan... so at least i got to see them for free)(Oh and Taxi's have automatic doors... cool huh!? later that day... We had a KIMONO Party! yep ... we all wore Kimonos and went to a Japanese Garden ... It was so PRETTY .... I felt pretty too HA HA! but it didn't feel pretty at the same time... THAT STUFF IS TIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! not a good tight but like Jin Jin tight! So the plan was to go eat and have tea... yeah NO! we changed out of that stuff so quick! ha ha! Then we went to eat.

Wed. We went to an outlet mall hung around i saw all the Japanese people and there dogs..blah blah blah... and then That Night we rushed back and I got to go to the Spanish groups meeting! it was awesome their spanish was just FLOWING out! i was in shock! It was so nice to be able to comment so freely.. one of the brothers will be at international in long beach ... i will try to point him out for you guys... Spanish is like a spanish person (maybe better than me -_-;) they say they learned through RADIO and when i said we have pimsleur they were like " Que ANTIGUO!" (how ancient) i was like xD yeah!

Thurs. Came home... i watched a movie on plane. When we got off plane and to airport .. I was informed that It would pretty much be just me for a couple of days! so i was like YES! So we got back home.. i went to sleep ha ha so much for starting my party HA HA! but then I went about explored ate a lunch box and bought a mess load of yingliao and went to watch some tv! ahhhh how relaxing! Stayed up until sun came up .. then decided to take a nap!

Friday I talked to some peeps and then went for WAFFLES! with ice cream .. my favorite kewei was Obama Brownie ha ha ha.. it felt like sunny skies! Home made and way better that cold stone (which by the way i have had already)Later i went and had korean with Sandy! DELICIOUS and CHEAP!

Sat- went out in service with nanqu congo. SO Awesome I talked to a whole bunch of ren. I have a couple of calls i will go do sometime this week. I met some really fun friends.. kinda clicked very well with some. I found another pair of Tao's I will have to show you a pic... they resemble our Tao's very well....kinda scarry... (Kendra ... she loves dogs too) They will be here for about a year from Michigan.

Sunday_ went to the Meeting sat with the Tao's and then we had lunch (thai) and we went for a walk... i kinda forced them to .. i have no bike. ha ha. In the evening we played lanqiu with the friends... it was so AWESOME

Seriously everyone since I've been in taibei there has been no boring day. So now I have exactly one week left... I miss ya'll .. see you soon!!!!!!!!!!!