I am now officially inactive!!!

I have now not been in the area of Daliao for church for three weeks! I feel really bad because I have to keep asking the Bishop to help me organize the lesson for the Young Men. Three weeks ago was the Singles Conference, last week I woke up with a terrible headache and was exhausted from coming back from the Singles Conference without stopping for a breath and then this last week I remembered on Thursday that I had a School paid for trip with all of the other teachers that was traveling back home on Sunday so I would have to miss another day. I made sure that I read some General Conference talks to try to get a little of the spiritual nourishment that I need to get through this next week.

The trip was really cathartic though. We went to Sun Moon Lake in Taiwan which is the biggest lake they have there up in the tall mountains. It looked just like one of those wistful Chinese paintings with the gargantuan mountains leaping out of the ethereal mist wandering through the lower valleys. We went on a lot of scenic little excursions including a little ferry ride across the lake with a tour and a nature walk up in the mountains surrounding. It was all so magical and just gorgeous! My favorite was a little metal pathway called the skywalk that started from a ridge and made it so you were walking among the tops of the trees. It was awesome! I felt like I was on some kind of Swiss Family Robinson house or something. The best thing I got from the trip I think is that I got to become closer friends with some of my non-American co-workers. More and more I am feeling like a regular part of the staff and not some foreign piece of garnish that isn't included in the stuff that matters and doesn't know how to do the stuff that doesn't.

All in all I'm now officially excited about Christmas, except for the fact that I won't be spending Christmas with my family, again. I really hope that they know that I love them dearly and think about them all of the time. Here's wishing everybody that reads this the best Holiday season.

Hiding in Bed, not fun

So hiding in my bed with a headache after a long week is not as comforting as it may sound to some people who are wishing they could catch a break like this. Sometimes I wake up so tired for work and just wish that I had some kind of ailment so I could validate staying at home but when it really happens I have to deal with the pain and annoyance of being sick which makes the rest a very non-enjoyable activity.

Anyway, at least this gives me time to write on my blog and catch people up on exactly why I have my head swimming in Acetaminophen. Last weekend I got to have a lot of fun. I went to my first ever Single's Conference. For all of you who don't know what this is, it's when a bunch of church-going single people get together and rent out a hotel and have a fun weekend full of hearing inspirational messages, doing service in the community, while all at the same time trying to exchange as many phone numbers as possible and complaining to your buddies why so many girls are completely ignoring them and how are they ever going to get married if the girls don't do their job of realizing how sexy they are (overheard conversation in bedroom, Ha!). Well I didn't plan on going, in fact I really didn't pay much attention to this activity until the church leader who was organizing it, who just happens to be my boss at work as well, asked me to provide a little night music (pardon the musical pun) for the singles to dance to. He said that he wanted me to be one of the choices on a night where the singles had free time to participate in a lot of different things. My boss wanted me to put on a romantic night of live Jazz music so the Singles could dance to it but have it be more of a romantic atmosphere instead of a night club atmosphere. I didn't think that Taiwanese people really connected to Jazz music, which I later found out that I was correct, but I jumped at the chance to perform especially since it was one of my most favorite music styles. Well it was a big hit! I mean they couldn't figure out how to dance to it, which most Taiwanese people in my experience don't really understand how to dance to anything but line dancing, but they said that they really thought the night went well and they met a lot of people. I was surprised because I thought that they were going to act like the youth at a dance, just a couple of people having fun while the rest of the people sit in their little groups on the sidelines. The majority of the people were on the dance floor dancing, talking and otherwise socializing. I also met some awesome people there too as well. I went to be able to find more people my age that I could get to know better and I think I accomplished that.

Needless to say I didn't get much sleep that weekend and this week I have not been doing much to make up for that loss. Between catch up grading, catch up playing and catch up tv shows I haven't been very nice to my body this week so it is taking it's revenge. Hopefully this next week I'll be more responsible. Love you guys and hope your Thanksgiving preparations bring you joy and the feelings of gratefulness.

All that Jazz

So I was in my office, minding my own business, probably wasting my time, when a big event's reminder decided to disrupt my very restful time and hit my heart with such force that I gasped and almost fell out of my chair. "I have to perform that single's Jazz night next weekend!!" I exclaimed. Don't you just love it how you plan for things that are so far in the future that it seems like they will never actually happen and then all of a sudden they are here? Well, gratefully I had been preparing here a little bit and there a little bit so I was not completely at my wits end but it certainly has made this weekend a nerve-wracking experience of continual practice and memorization of lyrics. I would normally be completely no worries. I always have one or two jazz songs that I can perform at the drop of a hat but this performance is for a National Singles Conference and I have to fill around an hour and half of time. *gulp* Now the upside is that this is no concert. I'm just providing "background music" for a romantic night. There will also be cameo appearances by the presiding Stake Presidency, and another girl that sang with me on the theme song for the Conference. So I do have some help to fill up the time but that still leaves me with a lot of material to practice and a lot of programming to think about so that people don't get too bored or feel like I'm singing too much. I'm already thinking of some Chinese jokes that I can use to lighten the mood a little bit because since this is a Mormon Singles Conference you know that there are going to people out there who are gonna be sweatin' bullets! I on the other hand am avoiding the awkward night by being the one in the spotlight which is a great compromise.

I'm so ready for this season to be here though. Even though I live in a foreign country where they don't celebrate the upcoming holidays I still can feel the peace and feelings of gratefulness that they remind me of. This Holiday Season is going to be special, I just know it.