I Love The Weekends!

Shopping in Taiwan is so fun (until someone takes your money out of the ATM before you get it!) because clothes are SO cheap! I came home the other night with 3 bags and I had only spent about $20. It is so fun. This is a new outfit that I am wearing... I love their jackets that they have here!


-----WUIAI FALLS-----


This weekend we (Fenny, Lindsey, and Emily) headed up to the very northern tip of Taiwan to see Wilai Falls. I was 2 hour bus ride, 1/2 subway trip, and 1/2 bus trip to get there, but well worth it. We just hiked around and looked at the many beautiful water falls.We get a little goofy on these trips, don't worry. The water there was such a gorgeous blue/green color. AMAZING! After seeing the waterfalls we walked down around town, ate some delicious food, and got to play in the river. Poor Lindsey fell in :( But the water was SOOOO warm and there were a lot of little fish swimming around. I got a lot of awesome stair pictures (They make fun of me because I love taking pictures of cool stairs)and amazing scenes, it's just so beautiful here! On the way back to the bus we got got in the rain (you think we we be used to this by now) and got drenched! Lindsey didn't feel so bad now that we were all soaking wet. This is me "teaching" about the monkeys that can be found in the surrounding area :). I have TONS more pictures... if you would like to see them please go to
www.photobucket.com
user name= taiwan teachers
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Click on "Rachelle" and enjoy my many pictures :)

The City in the Clouds

Wow, I had the best weekend ever! I seriously fullfilled my life dreams... see a place with trellaces growing along mountains and touch a cloud. As we drove and drove and drove up a beautiful mountain we were surrounded by tea fields all around. They grow in trellaces all along the mountain side. It was seriously one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.
We finnally arrived in Alishan National Park and it was seriously in the clouds. It was so foggy and mystical. It was incredible! We went on many hikes and soaked in the beauty. We just spent hours exploring and walking around. I felt like I was stepping out of a scene from Prinde and Prejudice or something.

We stayed at this old man's house. All six of us girls stayed in the same room, in the same bed(It was a rather large bed)! The man was so nice and helpful. We were so thankful for a warm place to come crash after our long day of walking. We were actually cold for the first time in Taiwan. We were not cold, we were freezing!


It was such a change. Well, as much as we loved our bed, we had to get up at 3:30 a.m. to go see the sun rise. We got up and rode a train up to a look out place. I seriously felt like I was ridding the Hogwarts Express, that is what it looked like! The sunset was amazing and worth every penny spent.

Weekend Fun

This is my great friend, Fenny. Fenny is a secretary here at the school and teaches a grammar class. She just graduated from a school in Taipei and I don't know what I would do without her. She is so willing to help me any time I need it. Her and Gloria will often write me a note so I can take it with and order something to eat or I will just hand the note to the lady at the bakery store so I can figure out what white package is powdered sugar! I can just see the note now... "Please help my dumb American friend...." Just kidding, they are too nice to do that!

We got up early Saturday morning and went on a beautiful hike(It is much better now that I have a scooter and can drive up to the trail instead of being exhausted by the time I get to the trail). It was a lush and green and I got to see some HUMONGOUS spiders just feet away from my face. These things are as big as my hands, or bigger! It is so cool to watch them move on their web.

After our hike we found a new breakfast shop that was great and then headed out to a water park. It was SO nice to be wet from being in a pool (instead of rain or sweat). This water park is much like 7 Peaks so we enjoyed the slides and relaxing in the Lazy River. Unfortunately, I still didn't get any sun. I think this is the whitest I have EVER been in August. It is so funny because here in Taiwan the girls want to be as pail as possible. They wear jackets outside in the insane heat just to protect their arms. They even use skin bleaching lotions, weird ha! Some of my friends can't figure out why I want to be tan, so funny.