Liebster Blog Award

Woo-hoo! A blog award nomination! Best. Day. Ever. ; )

Truly though, thanks Lauren, {Miller Memoires} for the nomination. You are too kind, and your blogging is a fun inspiration to me to keep up on my own.

Some Rules:
List 11 random facts about yourself
Answer the 11 questions
Nominate 11 bloggers with less than 200 followers
Comment on their page to let them know
Tag the person who nominated you in your post

Of course, I'm going to have to modify slightly. I'm not that snazzy of a blogger yet. I (embarrassingly) can't even nominate 11 people because I don't even know that many people with blogs. The shame. I know.

11 Random Facts About Us 

1.  I grew up visiting family every summer in the same SD city that Ray grew up in. My aunt was even one of his seminary teachers. We just had to wait beyond those close encounters to actually meet. 

2. Since moving to Europe, I've gotten Ray hooked on mineral water (carbonated water). Love it!

3. I can't sleep unless the covers are perfectly straight and preferably tucked in.

4. Ray can't sleep unless his covers are un-tucked; the state of the covers has no effect on him whatsoever.

5. The first thing Ray ever said to me was, "Wanna see what I have in my pocket?" (Be still my beating heart, right?)  Haha, it was right after we'd gone through security at SLC Int'l Airport and he'd somehow managed to get a pocket knife through. 

6. Ray proposed on New Years Eve at midnight with his grandma's ring. It was perfect.

7. I am a Disney movie quoting fiend. Ray usually rolls his eyes at my endless movie references.

8. Ray has the quickest wit I have ever encountered. Usually my head is left spinning in any quips we exchange.

9. Out of all climates, our favorite that we think we could live the rest our lives in is the desert.

10. Ray was captain of the tennis team, I was captain of the swim team. We're cool.

11. I could eat dessert all day, and Ray is always the one who suggests a salad. Go figure, huh?

Lauren's Questions:  
1. What is a Special Talent you have or Stupid Human Trick you can do?
  I can pinch people or pick things up with my toes- Ray can blow legitimate spit bubbles. Do we sound like hillbillies or what?

2. What motivates you to keep blogging?
  We like cataloging our stories here to share with family, look back on for a laugh, and hopefully someday share with our kids. 

3. What are you most passionate about?
  We both agree: the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It has changed our lives and made us better people and continues to help us and encourage us to improve. 

4. If you could meet anyone dead or alive, who would it be?
  Kailin: Queen Victoria
  Ray: My grandchildren

5. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
  Who knows? But maybe back in the states with a family on our minds. 

6. Dream travel destination?
  Kailin: an African Safari
  Ray: an Inhabited Alien World
 
7. Favourite foreign food?
  Kailin: Italian pasta or Japanese curry.
  Ray: Sushi

8. What are you inspired by?
  Kailin: People.
  Ray: The future.


9. What's your favourite hobby?
  Kailin: Not that I'm good at it or have money/time for it, but when I do, I really enjoy crocheting. 
  Ray: Board games.  
 
10. Favourite beverage?
  Kailin: Water or Dongua Cha
  Ray: Root Beer 

11. If money was no object, what would you do everyday?
  Kailin: I would get a massage every morning, then wash my hair with the best shampoo/conditioner ever, and then have someone else do my hair and makeup for me. Because I'm that lazy.
  Ray: Eat out at fancy restaurants each and every meal!  

So there you have it! That was informative, wasn't it? :) Aside- I just looked up 'Liebster' which actually means 'Dearest' in German. I like that I'm in Germany writing for a German blog nomination, kind of fun. 

Well, That's a First!

Day 10 in Germany... These 10 days have been full of our very own firsts.

We visited our first castle. High on the hill that overlooks our valley, is Landstuhl Castle, circa 12th century. There are walking paths all around it that we explored, but mostly we oggled that the structure was still so much intact; even with ancient cannon balls lodged into its walls. 

We explored our first village hometown. It literally took us between 20-30 minutes to walk the one main road from one end of the village to the other. On either of those ends are expansive fields that in the summer will be full of wildflowers, corn, and other crops. When the skies clear at night, the star gazing is absolutely incredible.

We watched it snow together for the first time since we left Russia. Fortunately temperatures have held out and it hasn't dipped below low 20's yet. Here's hoping that will continue!

We had our first Roman baths experience. Not too far from home is the city of Baden Baden, home of the ancient Roman baths, and current setting of Caracalla Therm. We got to spend four hours relaxing in numerous different pools, aroma-saunas and brine rooms. The spa resort is 'bathing suit friendly' thankfully, but the upstairs with its endless arrays of saunas, is the real Roman experience. We managed to be brave and kind of cringe our way through a half hour upstairs, just to say we did it. Yet another first. Public nudity... Joy.

We ate our first schnitzel! After months of eating out of necessity and rarely out of enjoyment, we've really indulged here and splurged on some good eats. Schnitzel was remarkably delicious, and even though we were warned the portions were huge, we each managed to devour our own plates, leaving my mom and step-dad slack jawed with awe and a little fear.

Lastly, I drove stick for the first time! Since pretty much everything in Europe is stick, I was going to have to learn sooner or later. This week we get to volunteer at my mom's work so we definitely had to practice with the car. Even though I was [needlessly] terrified, Ray guided me through the steps and patiently explained through my shrieks how to start, stop, slow down and speed up again. I only stalled twice, no big deal. And not even on my first try, thank you very much!

With all of these firsts, beginnings, starts, etc... Germany is building up to be a fantastic, character building, life changing adventure. Though still a little shaky (like my stick driving skills) we can't wait for what is in store.

Until Next Time, Taiwan

Currently, we are sitting at the Taipei International Airport, awaiting our 3PM flight to Shanghai. From there we will transfer planes and at 11:55PM tonight, we will be off to Frankfurt, Germany! Do you know what that means?

Ray and I have officially flown around the world together.

Just a fun thought I had : )

The last week in Taiwan has been so much fun and a bit unsettling too. Ray put it best when he said: "It makes me happy that I'm sad to be leaving Taiwan. It means I did something right." While we're so excited to see family (and have second Christmas!) leaving a place you called home is never easy.

As we've prepared, we have shared with each other the things we'll miss about Taiwan. Now we share them with you.

1. Our students- there couldn't be a cuter bunch of kids anywhere (except for our nieces and nephews who will only ever be trumped by our own children. We're planning on raising super model, Olympic swimmers, you know).

2. Select Food Items- Things like: fried curry dumplings, banana milk, fresh mango smoothies, rice triangles, and dongua cha are just a few of our favorites that are unique to Taiwan. With some luck, maybe we'll find fried curry dumplings in the states somewhere. We managed to find a brick of dongua cha (a fruit tea~ in English either Wax Gourd, or Wintermelon) so we're excited to try that out soon!

3. Flora and Fauna- Living in a tropical climate has been unbelievably rewarding in terms of the foliage. You can't go anywhere without being floored by the amount of greenery, the size of the greenery, and the vast varieties of it too!

4. People We've Met & Friends We've Made- Taiwan has some of the sweetest people in the world, they've been kind and helpful to us and even with a language barrier sometimes, we've made some lasting memories. Through church too we've met great people and created friendships that we look forward to tending for years to come.

5. Night Markets- Although Ray may beg to differ, they were one of the coolest things Taiwan had to offer. I never got tired of perusing the streets and checking out all the fun and quirky things for sale. 


Inevitably, we also developed a list of things we probably won't be yearning for any time soon...

1. BUGS- From cockroaches, to mosquitoes and biting midges, the bugs have been overwhelming and a rather unwelcome part of Taiwan. Of course as the weather cooled, things got better. The cockroaches especially though were a never ending battle we're happy to see the end of.

2. Humidity- In the summer you melt from it, in the winter you freeze from it. Who knew you could be shivering and shaking when it's only 62 degrees out! That's apparently what a wet cold will do to you though. We made it through alive, but humidity is something we could deal with less of in our lives. : )

3. Traffic- I don't think you ever quite fully adjust to being on a bike with 20 scooters around you, trying to get through an intersection with no stop lights or signs, and a tour bus eeking between you and oncoming traffic.

4. Smells- It scares us how accustomed to the smells of Taiwan we have become. When we first got here they were almost unbearable, now they're tolerable and sometimes even nice. Have we destroyed our noses forever?! Will we ever smell things the same?! We got some solace when we finally tried stinky tofu last week. Although we made it through the smell, it still did not taste good. Phew! We haven't lost all our senses yet!

 

"Stinky Tofu" by Ray
It tastes like eating a deep fried scab.

Ray ends now with some more reflective and mature writing.

It was a few weeks ago while walking to the store at night that I realized: I've grown accustom to this place. I've grown accustom to the old buildings, the abundant green foliage covering the mountains and popping out wherever it it can, the bright neon signs that line storefronts on the roadsides. I've grown accustom to the sound of hundreds of scooters bustling through the streets, the sound of people speaking in a kind of melodic warble all around us and not understanding what they're saying, the sound of children's laughter, and yelling and giggling. I've grown accustom to the smiles of helpful strangers and the "Hellow!"s of passersby; accustom to the feeling of being a foreigner at home in a foreign land, surrounding by everything I don't understand but feeling comfortable nonetheless. And this realization made me wonder; have I grown to love Taiwan? Do I love this place with all of its smells and foods and quarks and confusion? I know I'll miss it and that I'll look back at my time here fondly and often. Yes, Taiwan has truly "touched my heart."

Some More Christmas

Our Christmas Day was much different than last year, but in all the best ways possible... But I get ahead of myself!

Our Christmas Eve was quite similar to last year's. Living in the Bay Area, our first Christmas together, no kids to speak of, we decided to start our own Christmas Eve Tradition. And with that, we found a Chinese restaurant and ate Chinese food for Christmas Eve. I was so happy when I remembered that sweet memory as I rode my bike home from work on Monday night. I reminded Ray and we laughed about how fitting it was that now we were in Taiwan where we could easily and authentically continue our tradition. We opted for a new (to us) tepanyaki style restaurant. It was delish! And for only $100NT per plate, we wish we'd gone there sooner.

All you can eat rice and yummy fried pork with veggies! Plus free don gua cha- it just doesn't get better!

Back to Christmas Day...

We woke up and went into work, where we got to sing Christmas carols with some of the cutest kids on the planet. Then we got the afternoon off (like we do each Tuesday)- so we went home to do our more traditional practices. We sat in front of our little tree and exchanged a few small, precious gifts.

Here's our final spread of Christmas Gifts. *Not Pictured: Ray's classy new watch we had to get to a night market for.

And here I am admiring my new beads of jade... ya know, for beauty.

The best part of this Christmas was snuggling after presents and being able to relax on that blessed holiday.

When we went back to work for our evening classes, Ray gave a final, while I played a few more review games with my 2's so they'd be ready for their final the next day. No matter how many times I told myself these kids didn't care about Christmas, I just couldn't bring myself to give a final on Christmas Day.

Hopefully our Christmas's of the future will include more family, but may they always be as humble, merry and beautiful as this one was. 

2012 Christmas Card

Dear Family and Friends,

Physical cards were a little more than we could handle this year, and apparently even emails have size limits. So we've had to resort to our blog to wish you all the very Merriest Christmas.

Although Taiwan is by no means famous for Christmas celebrations, we've been able to feel the Christmas spirit each day of the season through our fabulous students who made this experience the joy that it was.

From all of us to you, Merry Christmas!

Itchin' For Some Christmas...and Home.

I love living abroad and traveling. It's something I've loved since I was young, even moving across the valley was always exciting.

Sometimes living for a short time in one place is hard though. Especially at Christmas time. Last night I told Ray I felt very "nesty." Are you familiar with the term?

It means I needed to make something feel like home. I needed to do something to make me feel proud of my space.

I needed to craft.

Since we didn't have a Christmas tree, I thought I'd start there. Lucky for me I made these 'book' trees last year and remembered how to do it again this year. Also lucky for me: "How To Kill A Mockingbird" was already falling apart in the cabinet so I felt no remorse in shredding it with a razor blade... Sorry, Harper Lee...

So here it is, our sweet little Christmas Tree for 2012. 

Why yes, I did make that origami star all on my own!

Here's our whole Christmas get-up: advent calendar, snowflake, tree and gifts all in like what, 4 sqft?

It's amazing how something so simple and small can still make you feel closer to a home. Ray reminded me that he is my home, which was and is sweet, but my response for the time was simply... "But I can't decorate you!"

The Final Countdown

Today we officially have exactly one month left in Taiwan.

YIKES!

That's not even a month of teaching days. That is: one month from today we will be on a plane leaving this gorgeous island. We really can't get over how quickly time has flown by.

Nothing tremendous has happened- we did finally get to go to the Taipei temple. It was a much needed trip, we're both happy we got to go.

 We got to the temple the day that Taiwan decided to have two weeks of rain in their "dry" winter season. But it was still beautiful, perhaps even more so.

In other news, Ray continues to be amazing by putting his endless array of talents to use in designing another game.

Meanwhile... I'm still trying to get these munchkins to put an 's' at the end of their plural nouns. *whew!*

Thirty one days until Germany. The reality is harder to take than I thought it would be. Chins up, and tackling each day with more conviction to love every second.