morningtime.

first we went to a lovely temple where we couldn't take pictures inside. or understand the tour. we think that the dalai llamas are buried there, but we still aren't completely sure.

then to a buddha mountain. start taking silly pictures now.

next to a winery, where we drank delicious grape juice and took plenty of stepford wife-esque pictures to match with the immaculate greenery.

and then an elephant show! one of the highlights of thailand, where i fell in love with elephants. one of the best parts was that these guys totally loved entertaining, which made me feel like they actually enjoyed their situation in life. jeff found a new girlfriend and i tried to take one home.

waterplay.

wednesday was water day. we took a bumpy boat ride to an island of wood. it was like a huge dock floating in the gulf of siam. from there, we were hooked to a rickety (again with the rickety) parasail and literally swept off the ground by a fishy looking boat driver. the whole operation took about .5 seconds per person. before we could catch our breath, we were whisked off (okay, totally romanticizing that) to another real island where we jetskiied and banana boated for approximately 2 minutes each.

we played in the ocean for a while, ate the same meal as the first night [crab and bok choy] for lunch, and got kicked off a chair for sitting on it. who knew they charged you to sit in a chair! we met a nice iranian man that spotted us as american and came up to take a picture.

him: america!
us: yes!
him: iran! america! friends!
us: uhhhh yes?
him: bush.
us: ......
him: obama!
us: obama!
him: friends! picture?
us: okay!



love it.

after we took the necessary ridiculous pictures, we went back to the mainland and got lovely massages. wish i had gotten pictures of the silly suits they made us. [actually lack of suits...awkward see through underwear]

then we walked "the strip" of thailand. note how happy we were before we walked down it.



and then on to day three...

dreamworld.

let's backtrack to the first day in thailand...
we had biked to the bus station at 130am on monday morning, sneakily locked our bikes behind a bush, and headed to taipei to take our 8am flight. after three hours of good airplane sleep, we arrived in thailand! we boarded our frilly laced-out bus and took a long bumpy road to dreamworld.

wait. dreamworld? what's that? let me tell you. think an imitation disneyland--thailand style. mickey mouse was replaced by a chipmunk. space mountain was replaced by space mountain [just a little more rickety]. costumed characters were replaced by elephants. splash mountain was replaced by super splash. and the castle was replaced by a giant's house. 2 hours was the perfect amount of time to spend there. and we got some great pictures thanks to ivan perez for giving amy her dream gift.

the phanties.

ELEPHANTS. phanties, according to ally.
versatile creatures.
have silly hair.
hilarious.
seem to enjoy entertaining.
very distinct personalities.
can pick us up with their noses.
well-trained.
poop in the middle of their shows.
we can ride on their heads.
can tell the difference between money and food.
photogenic.
symbol of thailand.
will dance with all four legs..and their trunk.

my new favorite animal.

i'm back!

elephants? check.
asian tourists? check.
beaches? check.
sweatshops? check.
monks? check.
fried bugs? check.
cool architecture? check.
transvestites? sadly, check.

and more to come later...

off we go to thailand! be back in a week.

taken from friscdude's flickr. can't figure out how to site it better.

indiana jones

ahhh! my computer has filled up and is not letting me empty it onto my external hard drive. meaning no room for any of the new pictures. this was the lone survivor of the saturday trip madness. dubiqi.

anyways...we headed to the bus station to see if we can take a bus to taroko, the national park here in hualien. [think yosemite in hawaii]. admidst the crazy parade, we find out that a bus is leaving in 5 minutes and we are shuffled to a line where a nice man kept telling up to wait one beat [weird english translation]. good thing we had a parade and a shiesty taxi driver to keep us amused while we waited. the bus came and we boarded without knowing what stop to get off on. we stayed on until the bus was stopped indefinitely. good thing it was at the visitor's center in taroko. we already knew what hike we wanted to go on but found out that it was an unwalkable distance from where we were. the woman told us we should rent a scooter. a quick phone call later, a man picked us up from the visitor's center and took us down the hill to his scooter shop. we signed our name, took a poorly-aimed picture, and jeff handed over his US license. $15 US dollars later, we were laughing our heads off as we tried to figure out how to drive a scooter up a mountain. once we got back up to taroko, we did a few of the hikes and finished with the baiyang trial. if anyone ever goes to taroko, do the baiyang trial. it was a series of tunnels--some pitch black and all amazing. they were dripping with water and at least one had a bat. i felt like indiana jones! the last tunnel had a water curtain [when spring water falls through cracks in the tunnel] that you could walk around or right under. of course, we played in it and looked like a bunch of crazy americans. imagine a dark tunnel with a thin waterfall in it. it was AMAZING. we scooted around some more and then had to head home after spending a good six hours in the park. our train was an hour later than expected so we backtracked and ate delicious beef noodle stew and then some disgusting mogi. found some puppies near the train, which i tried to get to come home with me, and then finally got on the train at 810. felt more like 1110. we took a taxi from the train station to the bus station and biked our way home. from the fact that i dont remember falling asleep [or what time or in what clothing], i'd say we had a good day. :]

saturday

another saturday, another parade. this time it was some sort of campaign. this nice man translated what it was over his cell phone...as in, his cell phone had an english dictionary inside. the files were INSIDE the phone. probably 7 blocks of people in red hats rooting for a taiwan political figure. and this was only on the way to the bus station...more to come later. it was a lovely saturday.

these are my confessions

about that picture below. it could have been taken as rude or offensive...

and yet, i felt somewhat of a desire to go into that store. [what is cooler than good kitchen utensils?] call me brainwashed, but i am so excited to head back to kitchen that has an oven...and eventually to fulfill my divine role of motherhood

and mostly, i love that i am surrounded by amazing examples everyday. like this family who remind me what the important things in life are. xiexie nimen.

"Walk with pride. Hold your heads up. Work with diligence. Pray with faith. You may never know how much good you accomplish. Someone’s life will be blessed by your effort." Gordon B. Hinckley [from this]

comments please

i got it from my momma

she gave me...
my butt
my like of reading
my nose
my little eyes
my dislike of smelly lotions
and much more.

i love you momma bear!

and i admire all the other mothers out there that are busy doing their thing...and doing it so well.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

the answer

why stacey why? because now your classroom looks like a real preschool classroom and less like a jail. props to amy for helping me SO much.

&& HAPPY BELATED BDAY AMY.

finally

and the countdown is finally over. 4 months and a lot of new experiences later, the lover has arrived.

p.s. the lame quality of picture is what happens when you steal them from facebook. sorry.