God is Good.

I don't know how it happened or really any of the details, but they have found another Chinese teacher and classes will resume. What a weight that has been lifted! Needless to say, we are all very relieved to see that Chinese is saved!! In prayer and petition, the Lord will provide.

I am back in Sansia and we have completed the last of our escapades in Taiwan. Let me fill you in on the rest of the trip. Wednesday we went to Kenting Beach where we rode on rafts pulled by jet skis for about an hour. It was probably the most fun I had the whole time. I absolutely love jet skis. And it just makes it all the more fun to be riding them in the middle of the clear blue ocean. If you have never experienced fun like this, you are seriously missing out. After a few near death experiences of almost flying off the rafts and hanging on for dear life, we played in the ocean and relaxed under the warm sun. Now, let me clarify what I mean when I say "relaxing under the warm sun" and let me tell you how Asians and Americans differ. I think I was the only person on the entire beach NOT sitting under a huge umbrella. I was soaking up as much sun as I could to try to get somewhat of a tan unlike every single Asian on the beach. I don't know if I mentioned this before but they do not like to be tan because they say that it makes their skin look dirty. Being completely pale is considered the most beautiful here as opposed to America where girls pay big money to sit in tanning beds to get as dark as possible. Well after we finished at the beach, we headed to Kenting Activity Center which is a youth hostel where we stayed for a night. It was a nice little area near a night market full of delicious food and very beachy stores much like something you would see at Gulf Shores or Panama City. That was a very early night for me because I was burned and completely wiped from all the excitement.

Tuesday I woke up in pain because I was sore from riding the floats the day before. And I'm pretty sure that I had a little whiplash haha We got up and drove to the Hakka Village in Kaohsuing where we ate traditional Hakka food and painted little paper umbrellas! Then we went to the biggest mall in Southeast Asia and then we went to get "ice" which is like a big bowl of shaved ice with a bunch of fruit on it and cream and stuff. Its pretty good! Then we drove to go see "Love River" and see the old British Consulate. Then we drove to our amazing hotel. It is the tallest building in the city. It is called Hotel 85. We were on the 31st floor with a huge window view facing the bay. It was a pretty incredible view! Lily, Tiffany, and I went out of the town for a little while and then came back because we were so tired!

This morning we woke up around 7:15am. We drove to Sun Moon Lake which was BEAUTIFUL! We got on a boat and rode around for a little while to look at the scenery. Then we went to where the aboriginals have shops and things like that. We spent a little time there and then ate some traditional food. After, we headed to a paper mill where we made our own paper and a paper fan. Then we headed to Taizhong to talk around for a bit. Then we headed home.

I think that it is safe to say that we have seen every noteworthy place in this entire country. The people that we have met are amazing and so interesting. People overflow with kindness here. I will miss walking down the street and hearing someone shout "Good afternoon!" because you can tell that they are so excited to be able to try out their English, and hearing a little kid say "Mei guo ren"(American) as they pull on their mothers shirt to get her attention, and the mountains, and the breath taking views from atop roofs in the middle of the city, and the ocean, and the phrase "huan ying guan ling" when you walk into any store or restaurant, and I will miss all of my new friends dearly.

It is 12:30am here right now and in about 3 and a half hours, I will leave NTPU and head for the airport for my 6:30am flight. After about 24 hours of traveling, I will be back in Starkville! But my life will continue to fly at about a million miles a minute probably for the next month. But I could not be more excited about it. I have committed to probably way more things than I can handle all at once but I will somehow find a way to manage. Here is a rough sketch of how this next week will look for me: I will arrive Saturday to Birmingham around 4:30pm then I will drive straight to Starkville that night. The next morning I will move into my new apartment!! :) That night I have an RUF get together to go to. The next day I have meetings! The next day I take my PT test for extra scholarship at 5:30am and I will celebrate my new friend's birthday who is a Taiwanese exchange student! Then classes start the very next day. That weekend I have leadership retreat for ministry team for RUF. Then real class starts. Please continue to pray for my and my safety traveling home and for the safety of my friends who are traveling separate from Rob and I. Also please pray that I will quickly recover from jet leg since I have no time to be "out of it" at all! And I have started to get a cold. This is not good. Pray that this will be a quick sickness and that it will pass very soon!

Even though I am finished with my trip, I still plan on updating my blog to keep everyone updated on my life. Feel free to read it if you would like!

Since I am not sleeping tonight, I have found that I have had a lot of free time to catch up on a few things. Since I know that I have been slacking on adding pictures to my blog and if you don't have facebook and were unable to see the pictures on my facebook, I have put all of my photos on Photo Bucket. Click on this sentence for the link!! :)