Back to School

Well my gigantic six week break has come to an end. After Thailand I stayed in Wuhan for a couple of weeks and then I met my parents in Beijing. I had such a wonderful time seeing them and showing them around China. After Beijing we went to Xi'an for a couple of days and then brought them to Wuhan (They even helped me teach some of my classes)! The students loved it!

So I have four more months left here in China. It almost seems like no time at all. Now the big question is what am I going to do next year. I need pryer for this because I am torn between a few decisions. I am thinking about coming back and getting a job, grad school, and I am also thinking about staying another year! aaahhhh It is a huge decision that can't be made overnight but it does require a lot of thought and pryer. Thank you.

Here are some pics of the trip to Beijing and Xi'an.
Mom on the Great Wall!

Richard Nixon said it best, "It sure is a Great Wall."

Terracotta Warriors.

When the emperor died the Chinese stopped making the warriors. That is why these ones don't have heads!

Little Chinese Kid at the Forbidden City

Rebuilding the Warriors.

Thailand Tan

Have you ever noticed that everyone who is white wants to become darker. Yet, everyone who is dark wants to become whiter. I have thought about that before but it was different this time because as I was laying out in the beautiful Thailand sun I knew that in a few days I would return to China where it is snowing! Anyways...there is your thought for the day.

We started off our Journey with a trip to Hong Kong. It is a huge city and we were bombarded with overwhelming thoughts of high prices and surrounded with millions of businessmen and women. We didn't do too much here, but we did go to Disneyland which was the highlight of Hong Kong. We only stayed there for a few days because we were soon on our way to Thailand.

Thailand was AMAZING. The sun was shining and we wore shorts and rainbow sandals the entire time. Did you know that Thailand has a King?! He recently celebrated his 80th birthday! There were pictures of him Everywhere. Billboards fifty yards long saying, "Long live the King" and Lance Armstrong bracelets saying "We love our King". It was quite a sight. The Kings Sister had just died a couple weeks before we arrived so they decided to keep her body in the central temple for TWO MONTHS so that the Thai people can give their respects.

We only stayed in Bangkok for a few days because we were going to our ultimate destination, Phuket's Beaches. It was a much needed vacation. A vacation from teaching, a vacation from the cold weather, and a vacation from my busy thoughts. It was very restful thinking about Father and what he is doing in my life.

It is good to be back home in Wuhan. Some of you have heard about China on the news. This is the worst snowfall China has had in 50 years. Some people are dying because factories have caved in. Thousands, or even millions, are stranded because airports, trains and roads are shut down. It is almost Chinese New Year which is the biggest holiday in China. Many people can not make it home. I was blessed to make it back to Wuhan. But know that I am safe and staying warm. Here are some links about the news in my city. I love the skiing student story! hahaha
love ya,
taylor

http://www.fasttrackski.co.uk/ski-news/general-ski/student-tries-to-ski-home-in-china-200801302561.php

---student skier---



http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0129/china.html

---other news…factory---


Thailand...so beautiful.



No words to describe this image..i love it



Sandy white beaches and clear blue water...nothing better!Phuket, Thailand



Riding an elephant is a MUST in Thailand


Bamboo raft ride down the river


The city.



This building was amazing. Every color is a different tile. Beautiful.


Soda in a bag...what more could you want?!


Bangkok bridge


Stew hit this gong and then some lady made him donate money! hahaha


Flower Street


Little Thai School Girls


Stew on the river in Bangkok, Thailand.


Classic Chinese Pose...DISNEYLAND(Hong Kong) And no my California year pass didn't work!

Time for a Break!

Chinese Zoo...I guess it's ok to feed the animals. Everyone was doing it.

West lake in Hangzhou. Beautiful city.
Well, the longest semester of school is finally over and we are now having the longest break between semesters. We get 6 weeks off! It's going to be amazing. So we decided to take a few trips. Tonight Stew and I are boarding a train and going to the city of Shenzhen and then taking a subway to Hong Kong. After we spend a few days in Hong Kong we are going to Thailand for two weeks. We couldn't go at a better time because it is suppose to snow in Wuhan next week! We are going to the capital, Bangkok, for 3 days and then we are going on the sunny island of Puckett for 10 days. I know, I know...as you are reading this you are so jealous of my life right now! hahaha I'm just kidding. Oh...Oh...Oh...we have an answer to pryer....Heaven on Earth, Starbucks, is coming soon five minutes from my house! If only they had an In-N-Out! hahahaha

After Thailand we are coming back to Wuhan to rest, relax and celebrate the Chinese New Year on February 6th. Then towards the end of my break my parents are coming out to visit me. I am very excited to see them. I will meet them in Beijing then we will go to Xi'an and then come back to Wuhan.

That is about all that is going on with me right now. Thank you all so much for thinking of me and prying for me. I could not to this without all of your support.

I will keep you updated during my break with pictures and a new video. Thank you again for everything you do.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas


Making our ginger bread houses!

Stew's house started to fall apart!
Merry Christmas Everyone!


Chinese Christmas


Well Christmas is around the corner and I can say this is one that I will Never forget.
It doesn't seem like the season is here. Without friends and family it just doesn't feel the same. I definitely miss home. I miss the things that are familiar during this time. I miss the decorations and hustle and bustle of the season. Some stores here put up decorations but it's a sad attempt.

The school was kind enough to give us a break from teaching Christmas day, but they wouldn't give us Christmas Eve. It's kinda sad, but I can understand. This is definitely the coldest Christmas I have ever had. It's about 40 degrees every day and slowly dropping in temperature.

I am staying busy this season. Stew and I are playing Christmas songs at multiple parties. We will play 5 times in 4 days. Everyone wants us to play for them. We don't mind at all, and it's fun to help people out. We will play at Aloha's and Mr. Mai's and a couple other places.

Christmas day we are going over to an Australian families house in the morning and exchanging presents and having breakfast...and in the afternoon we are going to a German families house. I am very excited to celebrate with different foreigners and Countries.

I am going on some different trips soon which I will tell you more about later. I just wanted to give you a quick update. Love you all.

Yellow Crane Tower/New Dog/Random

Here are a few picks around town and at the Yellow Crane Tower. I am doing well. We are making great relationships with people at Mr. Mai's Coffee Shop. I met this guy named Frank and he is a Kung-Fu instructor. So I decided to take some lessons. I am going to do that once a week to keep in shape, and so that I can practice on my little brother when I get back. haha Just kidding Trev. Mr. Mai's is having a Thanksgiving Day Party next week and they have asked Stew and I to play some music for the event. We are also having a Thanksgiving Day dinner with our foreign fellowship group next Thursday. So we will be celebrating the holiday with our good friends. Stew got a dog and named him 'Beau'. Don't ask me why he got a dog or why he named it 'beau'. I don't know. haha It is getting really cold here but I bought plenty of clothes in preparation. That's about all for now. Thanks for your pryers.


Street Market

A little Fruit.

Chinese Garden

Nuff Said.

Beautiful Wuhan, China.


Yellow Crane Tower. The entire town would come here for shelter in a time of war.

Stew's new dog, Beau. It looks like a stuffed animal. It acts like one too.

Huangshi and Three Gorges Dam

Hey everyone...sorry it has been so long since my last post. We have been busy the last few weeks. Since my last post we went to visit our friends Gavin and Kelly in Huangshi. They are teaching in this wonderful little town where they are some of the only foreigners. It is a nice visit for us just to get away from the big city.

When we got back, Stew and I had the week off from teaching. Our students were going on a community service trip to a local farm. They worked on the farm feeding the animals and sleeping in the barn. The school didn't want to let Stew and I come along for safety reasons, so we decided to go on a little adventure of our own. I bought a bicycle and we rode them 200 miles to the largest dam in the world, the three gorges. The first day we rode about 120 miles in ten hours...but when we woke up the next morning, Stew's knee had a weird shape with some fluid in it. So we didn't want to risk making it any worse. So we took a bus the next 80 miles to the large town before the dam. So we start walking around the town and we see the only foreigner in the town. Stew stops to talk to him, and we find out that he was dating this Chinese lady who just happened to be the manger at the best hotel in town. So we got hooked up with a nice room for half the cost. Amen. Then the next day we went to the dam for a few hours. Then we took a bus back to our Wuhan home.

Here are some pictures of our two trips.


Little Boy in Huangshi.

A little Park.



Sweet bread man. This bread was so good.

On our bike ride to the Three Gorges Dam, there were nothing but cotton fields the entire way. This is probably where your t-shirts come from!

It was hard to see because it was cloudy but this is where they raise and lower the boats to go from one side of the Dam to the other.

Me and the Dam...There isn't much to do at the Dam!

It's starting to get cold!

Well I know that it's hard to believe, but it got cold over night here. One day it was hot and humid and the next it was windy and cold. This will be my first winter outside of southern California. Many people relate the winter here to the winter in Seattle. So it won't be too bad, but it will be a very wet and long winter. I have started to travel around the city on Monday's and Wednesday's because i have a break from 10:30 to 2:30. So it gives me enough time to hop on a bus and get off whatever area of town captures my interest.

I got a haircut today. Hahaha. I was a bit apprehensive at first but it turned out pretty well. The one thing that you must realize it that the barber shops and hair salons here are like night clubs. They pump loud music and they are open for long hours of the night. Before I went into the barber shop i learned the phrase "Just a trim" in Chinese. So I started to walk around downtown and find a shop that "looked" appealing. But there was one problem. All of the shops I was looking at had pictures of girls on the outside...so I think it was just for girls. So the 4th barber I found had a guy inside also getting his haircut. So now it was time to face my fears. I walked up to the barber shop and I was greeted by a boy with his hair sticking straight up and bangs that went half way down his face. Just my luck, right? So I said the Chinese phrase, "Just a trim", "Just a trim". He nodded and brought me back to the sinks to wash my hair. This is standard procedure for a haircut. He washed my hair...twice. Then he conditioned my hair and he started to give my head a massage. I couldn't help it, I started to laugh. Out loud. It was just too funny for me to keep it inside. I was thinking, "All this for a haircut!" hahaha it was too funny. After about 40 minutes of washing...rinsing, washing again, rinsing; and the conditioning massage...I was finally ready for the haircut. So he waved over the barber and I repeated the phrase that I had previously told him, and he started to cut my hair. He did a pretty good job...although at the end of the haircut he blow dried my hair straight up! I looked like Don King! It was quite the adventure.


Don King haircut!


They think being white is perfect. So they have this whitening cream that makes their skin whiter. Yeah, kinda like Michael Jackson!


Around Town.


I found this park/statue area...it was relaxing.


Some military recruitment poster.


Starbucks...coming soon. We are so excited. They are opening up three in the city!


Bamboo Scaffolding! It's pretty sturdy.


That's all. Thanks for reading and taking the time to look at pictures. And thanks for your comments. I always love reading them.