Food. Food. Food.

These people are all about the food. Seriously every where we go we are bombarded by new foods and interesting dishes. And I feel like we are the circus come to town. Everyone is like, lets see what we can get the Americans to eat and watch their reactions. Its crazy. We have eaten some crazy things over here because let me tell ya, they get creative with their meals sometimes. Let me show you a few things that I have had the pleasure of having since arriving in Taiwan a mere week ago. There is plenty of good things to eat as well, don't get me wrong, but these are just the choicest shock factor items :)

First we have duck tongue. I have actually had the pleasure of eating this twice. First at lunch in the ICU with all the nurses and then again at dinner with the ER staff. The second time was funny because they thought I would be grossed out but I just acted like it was no big thing and chomped down cause I knew I could handle it. They were surprised I think.

First Timer in the ICU

Duck Tongue Veteran

Next on the menu is Chicken Feet. Now these didn't really gross me out as bad as they did some other people, but I just don't get the appeal. There isn't any meat on it and there isn't really anything to it. You are just supposed to suck on the bone and eat the skin I guess. Nothing really appealing to me about it. But this picture is priceless.
We also had the "opportunity" to get some stinky tofu from the night market. Imagine, if you will, really old stinky socks mixed with a bad case of diarrhea left sitting out in the sun for a week or so and you begin to imagine the smell of this stuff. You are sense it a mile away and don't believe the people that say that it tastes much better than it smells. It tastes EXACTLY like it smells. This is the one and only time I have nearly thrown up because of something I ate here. Absolutely awful. Never again.

Right after we pounded a huge bite of stinky tofu. It hadn't hit us quite yet obviously.
After knowing the awfulness of the stuff.

This next picture is a little decieving. The ER docs at our table made a pact with us that we would try anything they ordered for us. So they tried their hardest to get us the worst. They made us eat this one without telling us what it was. While chewing my piece, Whitney guesses that it is squid eyes and the doctor says she is right! I stopped chewing immediately and didn't know what to do. So that is why I am pointing to my eye. However, don't fear, they were joking. It is actually squid mouth, which is still weird but somehow better than eyes. Much better.
Now these puppies are the biggest shrimp I have ever seen. We got to rip off the heads and eat the meat. This is the first shrimp I have ever actually enjoyed. Perhaps I am just becoming accustomed to it a little more since it is in EVERYTHING, or maybe I like the big ones better?
Now it wouldn't be asia without a little raw fish right? We were told that as long as we doused it is wasabi we wouldn't get sick from it...I might believe them because it makes me sleep better at night.

And this nice looking fella is an octopus. I didn't eat this particular one but I did try a piece of his friend at dinner tonight. Not so good this octopus. As my friend Whitney put it, it tastes like the ocean. Yum.
So those are a few fun things I have tried. Maybe I will post later about some of the good finds I have had like papaya and mango milk. Or the omlet - meat taco things I found the other day. Or the amazing fish I had tonight. Or the plethora of amazing pastrys and breads they have there. But that isn't as much fun as it is delicious and I don't want to make you jealous. And don't worry. This isn't everything nasty that I have tried so far and I am sure it will just continue. This is just a sampling :) Hao Chur!!

Night Out with the Girls :)

So at lunch in the hospital yesterday the nurses that we were eating with asked if we wanted to go to a movie. Alexa and I said, sure and in typical Chinese fashion they made plans immediately to go out that night. They are very spontaneous here and make plans when they think of them. Its pretty funny. Luckily we didn't have anything else going on, so we got tickets and arranged rides. LaLa, a girl who told us to call her Vegetable and another nurse picked us up on their scooters (which everyone rides here) at 8:30 and we scootered to the theater.
Its a wonder people don't die more often in Taiwan on scooters. They are crazy on them and weave in and out of traffic. No one has any regard for lines or rules or lights or anything, so its pretty funny. We were safe though...promise. :)
So we saw 17 Again with Zac Efron (from High School Musical). It was actually a pretty good movie! I like it a lot. The movie was completely in english with Chinese subtitles. If I was Chinese, I would never go to movies...but hey it worked out for us! Total there were about 6 or 7 girls that came with us, none of their english being top notch, so it was just hilarious. They would speak the little that they knew and then giggle incessently. After the movie we had a photo shoot with the different movie posters in the theater and even though these girls are all in their 20's you would have thought we were all pre-teens. It was awesome.

The Proposal...
Zac Efron - So Hot. As those girls would say
Don't worry Jim, we didn't actually drive them...
These girls were so much fun!

It seriously was probably the most fun I have ever had going to a movie and I didn't really understand anything that was going on! It was amazing. And I got to see a pretty good movie as well! All in all a very fun night. Thanks nurses!

"New Rule. You are not allowed to drink anything without me present."

These are the words that my friend Megan said to us once she found out what we were drinking. She is the one that speaks Chinese and is our saving grace. We are paralyzed without her with us, especially when ordering food. So last night when she announced that she would not be joining us when going out to get food, we had no idea what to expect. But we ventured out and saw a lot of crazy things. Taiwan has some amazing drinks, my favorite is papaya milk. We found what looked like a drink place, so we stopped and we tried to tell them what we wanted, but they had no clue what we were saying, so we said, give us whatever and pointed to a picture. They presented us with two drinks. So we went ahead and drank them, and they were pretty good! When we got back to our dorms, Megan said "what is that?" When we responded that we didn't know, she told us, "Guys, that is milk tea, don't drink it." Well, I threw it out, but don't worry, I successfully broke the word of wisdom, on a Sunday. Megan reassured us by saying "Its ok, Missionaries break the word of wisdom all the time on accident". It was pretty funny. This is coming only a day after she found out I was drinking the tap water, which apparently is a no no as well. I found out after I had downed several bottle-fulls that the tap water runs along with the sewer and even the locals don't drink it. Great. I haven't gotten sick yet - well besides the nauseous feeling I get when thinking about the sewage water...

First weekend: Food, Baseball and Buses

My whole study abroad group. Only 8 of us, plus Jim Kohl, our instructor. Left to Right it is Calvin, Jane, Alexa, Candice, Me, Katie, Megan, Whitney

So I have survived the first weekend and finally have some time to write about it! After arriving here and unpacking and getting to know the area a little, we have had a little time to explore. Tomorrow, the real work begins because that is our first day in the hospital, where we will be spending a whole lot of our time in the next five weeks. So this weekend was all about catching up on sleep and getting acclimatized, if you will. The first day we were here I forced myself to stay awake so that I could get on schedule again (we are 14 hours ahead of everyone in Utah). Needless-to-say, I was a walking zombie and finally crashed around 8:00 pm and slept a solid 13 hours. Since then I have been pretty much good to go!

A big thing here is FOOD. We don't have a cafeteria or any set food plans so its just on our own, wherever we want. The problem is, we 1) don't know what we want and 2) wouldn't know how to order it if we did. There is a street just a block or so down from our building that is just lined with whatever you could ever want. We have sampled a fair bit so far, but there are many things undiscovered yet. Like stinky tofu. We haven't gotten that brave quite yet.

This is a shaved ice thing with a bunch of different things in it, including red and pinto beans, jelly-like stuff that I actually have no clue what it is, pineapple, and others topped with a molasses syrup. Very interesting. Called chuay bing, or something similar to that.

Shayla, Kat, and Suzanne - little shout-out to you from Taiwan to you via dead duck. Head included.
This man may be my new favorite friend. These little pancake delights are the most delicious thing. They are some sort of bread thing with filling. It is amazing.

Another thing we have done this weekend was go to the Tainan Lion's baseball game. It was incredible. We found out about this game from a man we got dinner from one night (that is a whole different hilarious story in and of itself) and decided, why not? So we found a bus that we thought would get us there, and it did! (and by the way, the only way we are functioning at all around here is because one of the girls here served her mission in Taiwan and speaks amazing Chinese. We would be completely lost with out her. Thanks Megan!) When we got to the stadium: HOLY COW! These people are into baseball. I have never been to a sporting event period that was so spirited. Let alone a baseball game! Absolutely hysterical. Check out this video. They were like this the ENTIRE game. How they have that much energy I have no clue. We were chanting the song the whole night.



The buses are basically our way around. And walking. A lot of walking. The funny thing is, everyone in Taiwan is super helpful, but not at the same time. They are so willing to tell you things and directions, even if they aren't completely accurate. Everything is either 20 minutes away if you are driving or 2 lights away if walking. But really...it could be much farther. The bus adventures are pretty funny. We never know when the bus is going to get there or where it may take us or how much it will cost, but it has worked out in the end for the most part.

So that is basically it! The first weekend is wrapping up and we are on to a whole different adventure in the hospital tomorrow. We all have NO clue what to expect, but probably more confusion and smiling and nodding. I will be in the ICU for the first 2.5 weeks and then we switch and I go to the community. Oh boy.

Im HERE!

I am officially in Taiwan! We landed yesterday at 5:30 am Taiwan time and took buses and one high speed rail train to get to Tainan, my new home for the next 5 weeks. I don't have time to put up any pictures yet, but hopefully I can do that tonight. So far, my adventures have included not understanding anyone, failing to get money out of an ATM because I was so confused, eating some delicious Chinese food, avoiding anything that had a head still attached or was just a head (a fish and a duck...) and taking lots of pictures. Everyone in my group is so picture happy, sometimes I don't get everything on my camera, but hopefully in the end we will all get each others and it will be complete. Everyone here is so nice to us and excited to have us work in their hospital, it is so nice. Our living situation is pretty good and we are having a lot of fun. I slept for 13 hours last night because I forced myself to stay awake until it was bed time, which just happened to be 8:00 at night. I think, hopefully I am back on schedule and the jet lag doesn't get me too bad. We start work on monday and will be spending a whole lot of time in the hospital it sounds like. I have learned a couple of Chinese phrases and words and can say them ok, but tend to forget them all when I am supposed to say them :) All of us here are motivated to learn some Chinese while we are here and so we are going to study it every night. We will see how far we get...I love you all and miss you tons, but am excited for this adventure!

Losing Time

This time next week won't exist for me. Why you ask? Well right about this time I will be flying to Taiwan and thus losing the entirety of April 30. Kind of strange to know that April 30, 2009 will never be available to me. But I get to then spend 6 weeks in Taiwan, so it kind of makes up for it. That and I will get June 11 twice in a row. Strange how time works sometimes.

I have about a million things to do before my trip, so it hasn't really set it quite yet, but I am super excited to go. Just have to get to that point first! 6 days and counting!

Matt and Chelsea got hitched!

This last weekend, Matt married Chelsea Beckman. It was so fantastic! We had a blast having everyone except Kay and the kids (we missed you!!) there together. Chelsea's family were so great as well, and all-in-all, it was a fabulous weekend.

The weather was perfect. In the 80's, clear skies, absolutely gorgeous. The Oakland temple is really pretty, I liked it a lot.

Laura and Landon :) I love them. A lot.

Jenna and I in our black dresses with yellow accents.

Matt and Chelsea just out of the temple, fresh newlyweds. They look like models in this picture. So pretty.

At the reception, Jenna, Paul and I. We loved the photo booth and watched it for most of the night. And took plenty of pictures of ourselves as well :)
Not quite sure why Jenna looks a little scared, but the reception site was beautiful!
The cute couple.
The cute non-couple.
Hunter was tearing it up on the dance floor! It was so much fun.

So Chelsea, welcome to our crazy family. We are all glad to have you. You are stuck with us FOREVER!!! SISTERS! :)