Ok class...What did you do during your vacation?

Alas, my vacation is now over. Today I went back to school. I enjoyed my vacation very much. But I was also ready to get back into school. So, how did I spend my 5 whole days of vacation? Well, let me tell you....

Friday...was Moon Festival. That evening both our church and the government had a party to celebrate it. We went to the Church party first and stayed about an hour. The government then picked us up and took us to the other party. It was the biggest BBQ of the night. Approx. 1,000 people were there. Bare in mind that this is a Taiwanese BBQ not an American BBQ. A Taiwanese BBQ is where you have a small charcoal grill sitting on the ground. You pull up a stool, kneel, or squat beside it and cook your food. There is one charcoal grill for every 10 people or so. During the evening, they had karaoke, and door prizes. They asked our team to get up and sing a song. We finally agreed on what we would sing and got up there and sang it. It was "Sing Alleluia." It is really easy. We sang it in English and Chinese. Two of us won a door prize. I was one of them. I got a desk lamp. It has come in really handy so far. I didn't get to bed until about 11:30.

Saturday....you already know some of what I did that day. I got up at 4:30 and called home and talked for 7 hours. After I had some lunch, I took a 3 hour nap. The remainder of the day was spent journaling and relaxing in my room.

Sunday....I went to Church. That afternoon, I helped Jarita and Lauren fix an incredible supper for the team. We made Tuna salad, fruit salad, a vegetable and beef soup to eat over bread, and sauted vegetables and beef to make a sandwich with. For dessert, we had ice cream with chocolate syrup, marshmallows, and sprinkles. It was delicious. We then stayed up till about 1:00 playing Apples to Apples. Its a card game.

Monday...I got up about 8:00 and went out with the team. We were going to go to Shau Kinmen. For those of you who don't remember, Shau Kinmen is the little island that I take a boat to get to. Five of us rode bikes. There were not enough bikes to go around. So the others just rode the bus to the port. Those of us on bikes left a little early and stopped by a beach and looked at a shipwreck. It was pretty interesting. But it is not a tourist area so I have no idea what happened or anything about it. It had been there a while. So it was all rusty. But it was fun to see. We then proceeded to the port where we locked up our bikes and got on the boat and went to Shau Kinmen. Upon arriving there, we found that they did not have enough bikes for all of us at the bike rental. they only had 3 and we needed 7. So four of us got to walk. I walked. We walked to a small beach. There, we pulled out our lunch of PB&J and chips. Drew went to the nearby Easy Way and picked up drinks for everybody. We ate lunch there and spent the afternoon swimming, making sand castles, soaking up sun, and simply having a good time. I, of course, forgot to put on sunscreen. So I got a little red. We headed back to the port around 3:00. On the way, we went through the tunnel that I had been in earlier last month. It was a lot of fun to go through it with the team. We finally got back to the dorm about 5:00 and completely exhausted. I took a shower, and then relaxed in my room the rest of the day. I was so tired.

Tuesday...I went shopping with Lauren for some much needed necessities like ant killer. (Since taking my mother's advice and implementing a water trap, the ants have not been that bad. I have only had them in my trash can and dirty clothes basket.) I also got some pictures developed of the summer camps earlier this year. I hope to make some sort of a scrapbook. We will see how that goes. We spent about 3 hours out on the town. I got back and had a great time recharging my battery in ways only an introvert can. I spent the rest of the day doing that. It was wonderful and what I really needed.

Wednesday...I went back to school and had a great time seeing my kids again.

Guess that's about it. Until next time...
:o)