I have been super busy since I came back from Thailand. I was at my home only for a few days before heading down to Kao and Kenting. I went with Mare and her friend from the States. We hit the beach for a day then headed up to Taipei to check out some thing we hadnt seen yet and to show Mare's friend around. After all that I went back to school for only 2 days before heading back up to Sansia to reunite with all of the foreign teachers I came here with. We had 3 boring days of [View Full Entry]

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****This is meant to be funny.....not serious.**** For a while now I have wanted to address the issue of etiquette on all forms of transportation. This does not specifically apply to Taiwan but to a number of countries and places. There are a number of unspoken etiquette rules for taking transportation but APPARENTLY some people must have missed the memo, thus these are my suggestions for solving the problem and making traveling a little more pleasant for everyone involved. Rachel's Rules for Traveling on various types of transportation. 1. Do NOT scream, talk loudly, or laugh when [View Full Entry]

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I'm not gonna pretend that I wasnt shaken up from our flight but I had to get it together so we could get to Koh San road to get our bus and boat tickets to the island. Well we had no idea Koh San is about and hour from the airport and we knew the bus left at 8. SO around 730 we pull up at Koh San and we hop out of the taxi and we race to find the office we were supposed to go to. Well we couldnt find it so we walked into some random travel office [View Full Entry]

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The train.....DO NOT EVER TAKE IT IN THAILAND. Spend the extra money and fly. It was the most unconfortable thing of my life and we got in to Chiang Mai 2 HOURS late. Once again Thai time, you must remind yourself of this constantly. So even though we got in late it was sill 930 in the morning and we couldnt check into our guesthouse yet, so we dropped our bags there and went shopping at the day market. I love the day market, things are much cheaper than at the night market. So we shopped, then checked in, showered, then [View Full Entry]

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Well for those who have known me for a while you know that disaster seems to follow me and things always go wrong. Well this trip was no exception. It all started on my way to the airport in Taiwan. I was taking the train since I consider the train to be a reliable on time source of transportation. Well I have never had any problems until I actually wanted to leave the country. Apparently there was an accident on the train tracks. Well our train was stopped for a VERY long time and I started to get really freaked out [View Full Entry]

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Well I am finally back from my vacation in Thailand, I was the most wonderful and life changing trip I have ever taken. There are so many things to share and talk about I will do my best to describe every part. My first week in Thailand I stayed at Asia's Hope Orphanage in Chiang Mai. The orphanage was started by Dave Atkins about 2 years ago and with help and money from many Grace Brethren churches the orphange has been built and they are now supporting 72 orphans. This is a miracle and the orphans only change to have a [View Full Entry]

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so i'm not sure how to describe the first 48 hours of my trip so i will list some of my thoughts and feelings so far. The kids at the orphanage are amazing. They are so loving and affectionate, unlike the students in taiwan. Its weird for me to be here trying to igrone Taiwanese customs and my western customs i have embraced. eating with my hands feels like a big no no and maybe a reason why so many kids and adults here are sick. this country reminds me of a mix between, middle eastern culture, mexican and asian. the [View Full Entry]

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Finally I have made it to the last week of school. Im not quite sure how I survived 20 weeks of teaching. It is NOT one of the things I enjoy about Taiwan. For me, my brain checked out a few weeks ago and I wasnt sure I would sanly make it to my vacation. I have had many rough days when students told me I needed coffee or something cause I was in a bad mood. But teachers arent supposed to be nice every day. I have had a rought time making it thus far, I didnt even want to [View Full Entry]

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Well i think i have officially decided i am going to be coming home and staying in the states for at least next year. today my school asked me if i wanted to come back next year and i said i would tell them after winter vacation, but i think i have made my mind up that i am coming home. I started to apply for jobs online tonight, Arizona and Myrtle Beach! I really have no idea what i want to do next year, whether i should teach or find a job that will allow me to travel. I really [View Full Entry]

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This experience today warranted a short blog entry. I arrived at lunch famished, ready to dig into the tasty lunch box that awaited me. I was even excited about the soup today, there was no seaweed, red beans or dead fish floating around in it. I was excited that was until i arrived at my seat at the table and saw what was there. In addition to my lunch box with chicken, veggies and rice these was a box of.......CHICKEN FEET! Are you kidding me? Did they really think I was going to eat them. I tried to ignore them the [View Full Entry]

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