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!!!!!!!!!!!

Best Part... MISSED THE TRAIN!

Ok!! So long story short, some how we managed to arrange a trip to JAPAN!!!!! I was so excited! We arrived Friday and are staying in Fukoka Japan, in the South. We are staying with a friend of Joys and Family. They are a very sweet family. We went to the meeting on Friday, and it was so coooooool ... yes I commented... I think I said something about... Gods kingdom. I met so many Japanese sis.bros. One of the Highlights was the Mic.s. There are no brothers passing them around, instead there are various mics spread around the audotorium and they sit in a little bag. And who ever sits by it passes it on to the person commenting. You gotta see a pic... umm...maybe I will post it next week. I am using the family computer... apparently the outlet voltage is not the same around here xD oh my!
Ok so now to the good part. We all decided to some Holland Village Park (kind of like an amusement park, entertainment full of flowers place). If you know me, you know that I am not CRAZY about flowers... yes they are pretty and all... but I dont need to see miles of them for an incredible sum. I think it would be more fun for couples. They had a couple of movies in like a SUPER awesome IMax type thing where the screen opens up on ceiling and all four wall... it was so pretty ... so we only saw 2... and then they closed. So we walked around... and I was really starting to regret coming to Holland Park or whatever its called. Oh yeah so we had to take a train about 2 hours time to get to Naji..something. So we had to make it back to the train station by 8:45... pplwere shopping and they realized we had 10 min to get back to train station... so we RAN RAN RAN like crazy *Finally some ACTION!* It was such a rush!... but we missed it literally by a hair. Of course I had no clue what to do so I just sat back and watched what happened.. and took pics. So for some reason we got on the very next train... I knew we shouldnt have.. but I was not about to sit there by myself. So they realized we were on the wrong train... and got off at the very next stop BIG MISTAKE... it was in the middle of nowhere... no one in sight but the 6 of us. AIYO!!!!!!! what to do?... first they panicked! and then Joy lightened up the mood... the 2 sisters were scared though. I on the other hand was excited muahaha hoping to see something else cool... or atleast be stranded and have some good story to tell.. I took pics of everything.. battery died eventually though. How i will recharge? i dunno... so we got on the next train..last train that would come by... we switched a couple of other trains and by that time it was about 10:30 or something ... Barely anyone out... (I have a mission of finding out where all the people are... I havnt seen that many around.... they arent that many at that holland thing.) Finally we got on a really nice train with leather comfy seats... I think word spread amongst the conductors and they all helped us... so that last train was like buisness class or something... anyways. So it finally looked like we would be home soon. NOOoooooo.. the train made a stop at a station and took longer than normal and there was an announcement informing the passengers that ... there had been an accident... sadly another train up the tracks hit a bicyclist... and they were looking for the bicyle... (u can assume what happened to the person) So we sat there for another hour... all in all ... it is about 1:30 and we are finally home. WHAT AN ADVENTURE! I glad i went to the Holland thingy village whatever that place is called.

Fishing

Well actually... I just went to look... Apparently only the brothers fish... I asked if i could do it but a sis said the Net was too heavy... They don't know how good I am at lifting things! Here are some pics.

Some other Pics

Ok so this is a pic of the friends receiving direction in cleaning up and finishing up some details at the NEW Hualien Kingdom Hall... It was very HOT that day... The Group pic is of Lunch at some fancy hotel after Sunday Public talk... All the friends were so nice! and friendly! on bro could speak english... So cool we could communicate no problem ... except he kept bringing up the zhuliugan (swine Flu)

Not So Cali..

On Friday Morning I was instructed to awaken the Aili and take her to Mc'D and then to the Train Station.. boy that would have been easier if she actually woke up. Let's just say she is not a morning person... So finally she got up like around 11 or something like that and we headed out. and BOY was I HUNgry. We stopped by 7-11 and picked up some snacks .. (I don't recommend the HotDog- weaner on a stick)the boiled egg is ok... actually pretty good. And the lunch box on the train ... not all that. So I headed to Hualien along with Aili and her aunt. Train was freezing ... and I had a headache, did I mention it was super HOT outside. Anyways.. headache would not go away so I tried sleeping it off... finally arrived to train station Yang dixiong picked us up and took us to Joy's house and as soon as I arrived I went to sleep... woke up just in time for dinner and then run to meeting... meanwhile head still hurt. By the way That was the last meeting at the old kingdom hall in Hualien. The next day... Saturday... me and Joy went to help clean the new kingdom hall ... really pretty. (head still hurt) and we came back home about 1 hour later... and they were all convinced that I had heat stroke... I dunno if I really did.. but Joy's sister hit me with a rock a couple of times... (massage) Surprisingly I had no headache... for a while ... it came back though. Sunday was a good day... went to meeting at new kingdom hall and AC was not on yet.. so all we had were windows.. it was pretty horridly hot! but bearable.. felt like we were in a sauna with another 180 people. The other congregation had their meeting the night before and could not even open the windows b/c of mosquito's ... Ouch!

Some Pics

4月19日- Danshui

These are Some Danshui Pics... Click on the pic to see more.

Time is Running out!

Ok so after the Crocs incident.... I am hesitant to leave my shoes outside the door. >.< On Sunday night we stopped at Liu Jiemeis home and joined a small jiaowang in the basement... it was pretty cool they have Kareoke and a pool and pingpong and theatre and a mess load of other things there. Let's just say I am not as thrilled by Kareoke anymore... or atleast when people are super serious about it ha ha... I'm glad for those sound proof walls. After that Sandy and I headed over to Taibei... (she never sleeps at night) We went to a memmorial for that kat chet fella ... The one who lead some Chinese people to Taiwan and then he went back to China. yeah that one. It was kinda like the Lincoln memorial but cooler. There are some auditoriums that look like old Chinese Palaces... when we arrived there was a crew taking down some stages and stuff... I was Like OH NO I MISSED A REALLY GOOD CONCERT! or something,... but we were nosey and found out it was some Buddhist thing where a whole bunch of people showered themselves or something... Ok Let me put some pics up. (Joy's brother let her borrow this really cool thing where you hook it up to the comp and you are hooked up to internet no matter where you are on the world... its about the size of a flash drive... anyways here we go)

Zaijian

Mystery of the missing Croc's!

Ok so last night we were leaving to meet a sister at her home, so we exited the apt. and went to put on our shoes. The shoes are usually left out right outside the door, everybody does it, SERIOUSLY. So it is assumed that it is a perfectly ok spot for shoes. Well as I went to put on my comfy black crocs that I refuse to pay for, but got for free... they weren't there!? WHAT IN THE WORLD!? I know it's CRAZY!!!!!!! So now I have to search every floor (11 of them)I guess since they don't really matter especially since they were free,... and that means I can buy something else to replace them in my luggage on the trip back... but at this point "It's the Chase" I am playing detective, and Sandy is my assisstant! Ok that's all... Good Day

Sorry Guys... words is all

Ok so this whole picture issue is getting on my nerves. I can't get it to work. I apologize. I attended the DanShui congregation meeting on Friday, and met many cool people, honestly this is the congregation I zui xihuan (like the most) It was super awesome! although there was that huge language barrier everyone was willing to talk to me. Yes ... My head still hurts from all the thinking ... and for some reason I can't really remember the words... but as soon as someone says it I know what they are saying. That's pretty cool. Chou jiemei (the sister I am staying with, and Sandy's bible teacher) is the sweetist sister ever!!!!!!! She has so much patience towards me and she is an awesome teacher. We were out in service and went up to this security guard I gave him the tract and invitation and all and then he said Oh I am busy,.. and I was like yeah so still leaving it for ya! and She jumped in and started talking and he was like im busy right now... (he wasn't really... he was on the job.. but all he had to do was wait for cars to come in and push a button) anyways sister Chou litterally said I KNOW! this will only take a momment. And went on and even through in a scripture... (Ok so I figure if I only make smaller posts maybe it won't seem as intimidating to you guys... so that's all for now... gotta go for some jiaowang)
ZAIJIAN!!!!!!!!!!

And Again!

Alright, well.... Where should I begin... So it has been a while since my last post. Where to begin...Ok! So Monday night I came back to Taibei... I fell asleep on the way... on the train... and the next thing I know there is this train Lady saying.. "xiaojie xiaojie.. daole" ... and I'm like ohhhh... "bu hao yisi" half asleep... No one else on the train and this line of ladys coming on the train waiting for me to scram to clean the train. It was so embarrasing! Then I had to drag my luggage to the opposite side of train station TWICE! (again half asleep) So then I finally found Joy and we went home! We stayed up for a while talking and stuff. The next day Joy, Aili, and I headed over to Yang Ming Shan! We ate picked callie lilies,.. and then hiked a little to this beutiful open hill side type thing and chilled... it was really cold so Joy wore a bath robe (on top of her clothes). Afterwards we headed over to the HOT SPRINGS (this one is for you Nikki) It was at a resort... the mountains surrounding us (the price was super reasonable we got food afterwards too) There were so many pools we could get into... it was basically just the three of us there. SUPER AWESOME... Basically spent the evening doing that...The next day ... the morning hung around home, studied cleaned, that kinda thing. Went out fur lunch came home and packed for Danshui (where sandy and chou mama are) We hung out with a couple in Danshui and had dinner and went back to there place for tea and biscuits. The liu dixiong is prof. caligraphist. So he thru together some masterpieces and gave to us. Afterwards I came to stay with Sandy. Today Thursday was pretty awesome we went out in service in the morning and it was so pretty. It was out towards countryside so there was trees and fields and then Ocean... BIG BIG OCEAN... It was so nice. And I got to jiaowang with a lot of sisters. Afterwards we all went to lunch together... it's seriously like a family here. I got invited to go karoke and bowling for Sunday.. I'll see how that turns out. Afterwards we went to this place where they have the "nuwang tou" queens head. Off the shore there are these rocks that have formed through out the years and one of them looks like a queens head. It was BEAUTIFUL mountains to one side Ocean to the other... we arrived around 5 so the sun was starting to set. now let me see about pictures. ...

Out Chuandaoing in Gaoxiong!

Well... as far as the post before this one... I don't really know what happened with it. It's a mystery .. I don't remember what it said... so it's lost... THE STORY'S CONTINUE! ( Edit: I remembered a little When I arrived at the NRT station, I had trouble finding the elevator .... When I found it I was instructed to find the 4th floor... but I only say floor 1, 2, 3, and R! what in the world! I suspected it would be R(4) but I was not sure so I waited to ask someone... took a while and it was confirmed... HEY! I just had a thought! maybe it's because 4 is not good number! HA HA! It must be!.... So last night, we went to the meeting here in Gaoxiong. It was pretty nice! Although something gave me some comfort... eventhough there were about 100 people there... there were still times when there was a question... and dead silence. I commented! but then as soon as I began ... this little green bug jumped on to my book... and well you know me I alway have an awesome reaction to these type of situations.... I did really good this time but kinda thru me off. I talked to many sisters... all the same questions... there is only one question that I have trouble answering... that is what made me decide to get baptized so young? Well.. there are many reasons... the biggest one I dunno if I can explain in Chinese.... all well JIAYO! There were a couple of times where some people talked to in english,... and I was like chinese please,... but they would give up on me too easily... so i prefer to talk to those who know no english. Today I went out in service... it was interesting! A lot of differences i dunno where to begin! I have to draw up a map or something. I dunno. I'll tell you later. After service we went home I HAD TO TAKE A NAP. So tired! and then ate and went to do a study with ru. And then we went sight seeing... I don't remember the name of the place. I think it was that British con... thing... There were a MESS LOAD of Tourists... could barely move. Still fun though, then we went to night market. I enjoy riding the scooter it such a rush ... I mean you could fall off at any momment... ha ha... I like the ride though. I like the way people look in Gaoxiong... very laid back looking... not everyone walks around made up like going to club like in Taibei. To tell you the truth I wanna go back to Taibei! >.< ( I kinda feel like that is home.) All well I just need to go to train station and get meh ticket... anyways So now I have to go study. ZAIJIAN!

Lu to Gaoxiong!

Ok so while I was at Zhang Jiemei's house Joy helped me purchase the ticket... so i really didn't have to do anything at all... >. (hmmm... how odd where is the rest of my post!?!!!!!!!!!!!)
ZAIJIAN!

Out Chuandaoing!

Ok... so let's see where did I leave off... I spent Tuesday and Wednesday all day out in service with Zhang Jiemei (which isn't as scarry as I imagined... I kinda miss her now -_-;) She is an awesome sister! Before there was an anpai where people would be sent out as special pioneers here in Taiwan (it is no more) and she got to do it 3 times. So she has spiritual children all over the place... and they love her very much and she loves them ... they are such a treasure to her heart, when she talks about it you can just see it in her eyes. She is an awesome teacher too. I went with her to do a study it was the first one, but even then the student was well prepared in advance. She says that she only wants serious students... maybe it is b/c of her age that they listen but still its super cool. He had all scriptures looked up for entire first chapter. Then all her other studies did too. I actually got to go out in service with one of her former studies who is now recently baptized... I would have never guessed it though... she seemed to have been in the truth for so much longer than she really was. ( I love 7 11s they are so convenient) At first i kinda felt like i was being too much trouble for zhang jiemei but we became good friends after a while. She even walked me to the bus stop and all that and gave me candy. It was nice she said my chinese was bucuo ... which meant a lot. I hope I see her again before I leave. I need to post some pics. Service is pretty cool... a lot of people are like hurry up and get to the point. Sometimes they hang up on me ... but that's ok. I need to practice more for SURE!

Side note!

So how bout the whole first week I was here, I would always be so proud of saying " Wo shi moxigeren" (i am mexican) I figured not a lot of those came around here. So people would be like ohhhhhh thats why you dont have white skin, if i said meiguoren they would all be puzzled. So anyway after this whole pig flu thing im like ... im from Meiguo.... yes i get puzzled look. But atleast I don't get sympathy ha ha ha... now when people hear that i am from Mex. they are all like oh wow thats the place that has the pig issue, they are famous now ...( you ming) ha ha and im like yeah i know, and they are like you need to be careful dont go back to Mex. it is not convenient right now.... and im like -_-; (dui liaojie!) ha ha thats all!