Thanksgiving Dinner Pictures

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!! Here are a few pictures from our dinner.

This picture was taken from outside our apartment looking in. Our window wasn't quite wide enough to get the H and G in line - oh well.











Ruthie was our fantastic chef of the evening. Here she is stirring the gravy. It was so good - I hadn't had mashed potatoes and gravy for at least 5 months!

Cooking dinner with only a toaster oven and a two-burner stove proved to be interesting. Here are some biscuits (made by Sarah) baking just after the chicken came out. We didn't have pie plates, so a deep-dish apple pie is waiting for it's turn in our rice-cooker pot. We couldn't find turkey anywhere, hence the chicken. We also couldn't find pumpkin anywhere, hence the apple pie. I actually like apple pie better, anyway.

Myra cutting up some delicious baked goods.

Sarah and Jessica putting on the finishing touches.

We ate far too much - we had mashed potatoes, candied sweet potatoes, corn, deviled eggs, chicken, gravy, biscuits, pineapple, various breads, and apple pie with whipped cream (whipped by hand) for dessert. Yum!

This was a unique Thanksgiving that I think we will always remember. I truly have a lot to be thankful for, not the least of which are YOU, my dear friends!!

Love, Christy

On being lost...

The other day, one of the Chinese teachers at our main school drove all of us to a large grocery store (Carrefour) in Chiayi City. This was really nice, because we could all stock up on groceries without having to lug them all back on the bus, which is sometimes a challenge when the bus is packed full of people. :)

Anyway, our driver, Andrew, was somewhat "directionally challenged" and managed to get turned around on our way back home. (He's new to this area.) We kept coming to dead ends and although at times we could see the highway we wanted to be on we had trouble actually getting on it. After stopping and asking for help twice we managed to get back on our way home. Poor guy - I think he was a bit embarrassed but it made for an interesting adventure. The most interesting part happened after Andrew dropped us off at home close to 10:00 p.m. He told us the next day that as he drove back to his home (one block away) he saw a little boy wandering around. Maybe about 4 years old, all Andrew could get from the boy was that he lived with his grandfather and that his grandfather was drunk. Andrew stayed with the little boy for a while and then finally took him to the police station where they could help take care of him for the night. It made us all think - if we hadn't gotten turned around on our way home Andrew might not have been there for the little lost boy. A couple of the teachers at the school, when hearing the story, said "That must have been God." Yes, I think it was God taking care of this little boy.

I hope I'll remember that next time I'm driving with someone who gets "turned around".

Love,
Christy

Cerita

The beautiful Cerita - director of Siang-He Guo Siao. I work with her quite a bit.

 

Some pictures to go with post below...

Some little darlin's from the mountain school.

Mrs. Ardron, Mr. Ardron, Rachelle & Josiah

 

What I have been up to...

Where to begin?
Obviously, I haven't been posting here much recently. I guess I'll back up and brief y'all on what I have been up to in the past few weeks. =)

A couple of weekends ago I went to Tainan to visit the Ardrons and Rachelle. I was able to catch a ride with a teacher here who was also heading down there for the weekend, but I had to take the train back all by myself! It turned out to be rather easy - you just get on the train and then get off at your stop. It is really fast too - less than an hour from Chiayi to Tainan. Anyway, I had a wonderfully refreshing weekend there in the Ardron's home though I was a little tired from staying up and sharing with Rachelle till who knows how late?! Here's a picture of Rachelle & me.

A month or so ago, I agreed to teach at a Junior High camp on November 11, which happened to be last weekend. Although a lot of work, it turned out to be quite fun! I and two other English teachers put together a Thanksgiving theme for the morning and a Christmas theme for the afternoon. Hence, we were able to have a whole "giving" theme for all day. We were able to make clay bowls, fudge, teach Christmas songs, make thank-you cards, have a short Thanksgiving play, and teach some English in there as well. Junior High students are quite different to teach than elementary-age kids; they're much more reticent. One has to think of more ways to try to get them to actually speak. I brought my camera with me, but forgot to take pictures all day. :(

The day before the camp some of us went up to Alishan, a famous mountain for its tea. In the morning we taught one period in a mountain school. They gathered all the kids together and we did the "Musical Chairs" skit. I think they liked it. =) After a yummy lunch (including deep fried tea leaves), we went to see the manufacturing process of Alishan Oolong tea. I found it quite interesting. The time for harvesting winter tea is only about 2 weeks long and it takes 60 hours of processing time to prepare the tea for sale. The tea is hand-picked to very precise specifications and then put through a whole system of drying, compression, tossing, more drying, more compression for 60 hours non-stop. Although they have machines, much of the work still requires a lot of manual labour.

On the Sunday following, Myra & I went up to the mountains with a family who is really into hiking. The mountains here are beautiful! They remind me of home! At the bottom of the mountains the trees are palms and it's neat to see the change in foliage as one goes higher. We hiked at around 3000 meters (or 10,000 feet). Up there, the trees are very much like the ones at home. The highest mountain in Taiwan is around 14,000 feet - I wonder if I'll have a chance to try hiking it sometime! They actually do get snow on that mountain sometimes in winter. Anyway, it was so lovely to have a day outside in the quietness and beauty of God's creation.

In between the weekends, I have been busy teaching school. It's going well. I've also enjoyed attending a small church plant on Monday evenings and an "English" Bible Study on Wednesday evenings. It's good to meet some people from the community!

Looking ahead, in less than two weeks all of us Taiwan teachers here are planning on a trip up to Taipei for a bit of a retreat. It should be fun to see everyone here and share our experiences! I'm looking forward to possibly attending a Taipei Symphony concert - I'm just waiting to see if I can get tickets.

AND, my big, exciting, wonderful news is that in about 2 weeks my mom and Melody are coming to visit!!!!!! Whoooo hoooo! This will be SO special!!!

So, I think that's it for now! Various other things have happened in the last few weeks, but I'll maybe post them later.

Love you all! Thank you for keeping me in your prayers.

Love
Christy

Mountains in Taiwan

Yes, I'm still alive!! I really will hopefully update this blog in the next day or two. In the meantime, here are a few pictures from a lovely couple of days in the mountains last weekend. Enjoy! Love, Christy