Lessons from a college experience.

            This past semester was my first semester at college. I went to Pensacola Christian College. Everyone asked me if I liked it and the answer would be yes. I did like it. Like everywhere it has its highs and its lows, but that’s okay because you just get over that.

            My first semester was really easy, thankfully! It was nice to have an easy semester so I could get the hang of teachers and classmates and lots of people. It was a little strange going from homeschooling to college, but I got used to it really fast.

            Even though it was easy there are still some days when nothing goes right or you have a million things on one day. I had a couple of those. Days where I didn’t even want them to happen. I just wanted to skip over them. It was so cool though because that’s when I saw God working the most! Like He says He’ll be there when we need Him and He’ll be our strength.

            I think one of the biggest examples of that happening is with my math. I hate math so much, so much! God worked everything out though so that I could pass the class. This wasn’t a particularly hard class at all I just stink at math. It was so cool to see how God worked it that one of my friends sat right behind me, and He helped me to get a good teacher. It was so cool because I totally saw him working so much in that class. The first half of the semester I relied on my friend and my brains to get me through-I got B’s. The next half of the semester my friend and I would pray before every test-I got A’s.

            I’ve always believe that God was there and heard us when we pray, but this semester God just became so much more evident. Whenever I asked Him for something He also came through. He was always there for me and that’s how I survived my first semester at college.

Hello!

Guys, don’t worry, I didn’t die. I just came to America. I got back to America on July 16^th; I surprised my family. I told them that I wasn’t going to get home till the 23^rd. Daniel picked me up at the airport the 16^th and I spent the night at his house. The next morning he took me to my Dad’s office before my Dad got there. I met his employees; they were surprised and confused to see me. When my Dad got there I was in his office just chillin’ and waiting. He came into the office and was of course happy to see me. I didn’t know it but he brought Seth and Matthew into the office with him so I had a little surprise. After a little while Matthew called Mom to have her come pick him up, and then Dad called Mom to ask her to come up. Dad said that Mom was going to take a while to get there so I was taking my time to get to my hiding spot. I was so scared that Mom was going to come in while I was in the back. I was about to walk into my Dad’s office (to get there I had to pass the door) when the door opened. I quickly decided to just stay where I was. Dad’s employee said “Cathy, can you help you us? I don’t know what to do with this.” Mom thought that something had spilled or something so she came to look at what they were talking about. When she peeked her head around to look she saw me! She was the most surprised to see me. She dropped all her stuff and gave me a big hug. She was so happy but so confused why I was there when it was only the 17^th. The first thing that Mom and Dad said to me was “How/Why are you here?” 

So, that’s how I surprised my family. While I was at the office Dad asked me if I could work the next day. I told him nope, I needed at least 1 day to recuperate. I started work on that Thursday (the 19^th). I worked full time for the 3 weeks that I was home. I spent my nights preparing for college and the road trip/vacation (that I am currently on) and spending my time with my friends and family who I hadn’t see for a year. That’s why I didn’t really post because I didn’t really have time for it (plus, my laptop was being repaired because it broke while I was in TW).  

The time that I was able to spend with friends and family was so much fun though! I took Matthew rock climbing and DJ hiking. Drew and I went shopping and ate pizza in his convertible…with the top down. I played some really good games of ultimate Frisbee. My last time playing we played during a thunderstorm in a goose poop covered field. We played some beach volleyball. I went to Wal-Mart like 10 times!!!!  I got to go blueberry picking, which I love. My Mom and I went to a salon and then shopping and to a bridal shower. My friends and I went to IKEA and go-karting and shopping at Kohls and got some frozen yogurt. I had some good memorable times. 

Right now I’m on the road with my family. So far I’ve been to 3 new states, Minnesota, Montana, and North Dakota. We’ve been to the mall of America and Glacier National Park. Right now we’re on our way to Portland, Oregon where we’ll go to Multnomah Falls and I’ll get to see some of my friends!  

Right now we’re on the opposite side of America as our home. It’s so awesome. My family has 2 more weeks on this trip. I think I’m looking forward to Mt. Rushmore the most. Alisha is with us right now and Daniel will be here tomorrow. I’m so excited that they get to come and I’m really excited that I get to see Michael!

Life takes us many places

8/10 5:00AM we leave for a 3 week road trip across America!
9/1 10:00AM i fly out to FL to go to college! Scary? yes! Exciting? yes! Ready? no!

I'll come back with a lot more states checked off my map and a lot more quality time spent with family! I'm so excited
~D2

Camps :) Number 1

Obviously my teaching in Pingtung is done and my time with my team down there is done as well. Right now I'm in Hshinchu working King Car's summer camps. We have 3 weeks of camps before we can go home. Every camp is 7 days and 6 nights long, right now we're on the 3rd day of the second week.
These camps are so fun! Last week was really good. I taught with Marshall and we had the 4th lowest English (out of 6). Our kids were so cute and they did a really good job. Our team name was the Jellyfish (because the theme is Ocean Adventure). We had 9 kids on our team and one TA (Taiwanese Assistant).
Week one flew by. I think my favorite part of week one was the day that I got to skype my family with the kids. At the beginning of the week I told the kids that I had a brother named DJ and they all said "DJ!!, DJ!!" Every time after that whenever I said his name they all started DJing. I decided to skype so they could meet DJ because most of them are the same age anyway.
Camp is a  blast! I think another one of my favorite parts of camp was the sports time in the afternoon. Most of the American Teachers have to sign up to play a sport with the kids. None of the teachers wanted to play baseball so I signed up. It just so happened that the coolest kids in camp also signed up to play baseball. I had so much fun with them. They were so nice to me and pretty much the best.
So week 1 was awesome. Week 2 is in the process of being awesome and I'm sure week 3 will be amazing!!

The story of Jonah

Learning about the oceans

The story of Noah

My team

Me and my TA

My TA and Co-teacher

Skyping my family

A skit we did for the kids

Making egg salad

Eating egg salad

My team right before we left

Crazy kids

Love you Michael.

Michael!!!
I hope you had a great birthday!!! I miss you lots and sorry I didn't do anything awesome.
My team and I had a great time making this. They all wrote in their journal how much they loved to sing to you. They're pretty awesome :)    like you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRF1Uxix3V4&feature=youtu.be

Love you Michael!
Andrea

I will miss you :(

Today is my last day in Pingtung Taiwan and my last day with my team. It's really sad to think that I've been living here for a year and now I'm might never see it again. I'll definitely miss Chaozhou. The people are so nice and friendly and  it's so beautiful. I'll miss my team a lot. We had a great year and all of us have awesome memories.
Even though some times were really hard and we didn't like being here and wanted to go home we all stuck it out and made it to the end. Taiwan has been so amazing. I really can't express how awesome it is or how much I've enjoyed living here.

My team was a huge part in my experience in Taiwan. Without them I don't think I could of done it. Each one of them are special in their own way and they are amazing people. I've loved (almost) every moment that I've got to spend with them, from team meetings and team fellowships, to teaching and more teaching, to dinners with the schools and friends, to our days off and trips to the unknown. They are all awesome people and awesome Christians. I wish I could describe them to you but it's kinda hard because they're so crazy. Just know that they are all super special to me and I have some of the best memories with them.
On Sunday we took our last official team photos. All of our team photos have had an awesome theme to them so our last ones couldn't break the trend. When my sister was here she gave us these really finger-staches. It's a mustache tatoo for your finger......

I'm pretty sure that we all decided these were our favorite photos we've taken. All of our personalities really come out in the picture right up above.
She also brought us matching rings so we used those to create awesomeness as well.

Dear Pingtung Team 2011-2012 I WILL MISS YOU!!

There you go. Don't expect another post for a long time because I have 3 weeks of 6 night 7 day camps and then I'm home bound!!
Michael, Happy Birthday!
D2

Taiwan!!! 我愛你們

It seems like this month I've had a lot of different adventures and random things happen.

Amber's sister came a week ago for a month long visit. We went up to Taipei for a weekend. We said goodbye to both our schools. We went to both of their graduations. Aaron and I said goodbye to our Sunday School class. We celebrated our 300th day in Taiwan. We gave our superlatives and had our last team meeting. We had our last outside teaching class. We had our last EV class. We had our last Friday afternoon class. We went to lunch with the school. We sit inside 24/7 because of the Typhoons. I'm leaving Chaozhou in 6 days so I'm packing.

Taipei was pretty fun. Aaron and Julia went up on Friday right after we finished teaching the Kindergartners. The HSR ride was kinda boring so we took a couple (thousand) pictures.

Once we got to Taipei we went straight to the airport to pick up Amber's sister. Amber had an amazing outfit because she wanted to make sure her sister saw her.

 It was raining in Taipei so we didn't get to do a lot. We went on the gondola and then it rained so we had to get off. We visited a couple markets and ate some food. It wasn't super exciting.

Aaron and I came back home early so that we could have one last time at our Sunday School class. They actually had a party for us (and the June birthday's). It was really fun. They had a ton of delicious food and Said thank you and made us crowns.

That was really fun to be able to have one more time to say goodbye and to have a party with them.

On Wednesday we celebrated our 300th day in Taiwan. If you want to be super precise it was some of our stuff's 300th day. We've left the country 2 times so we haven't been in Taiwan exactly 300 days. We have been gone for 300 days though.

Our last Friday class with the Kindergartners and the 1st and 2nd graders was so good. We had so much fun, we didn't plan a lesson for them so we could spend some time just playing with them.

One more thing. We also got to attend a concert of one of the schools that had come to the EV. They were aboriginal and really good at singing. They all did an amazing job.

Yep, June's not over yet but that was the beginning of my June.

D2