Hot pots!

 This is Sister Christiansans last transfer and we are so glad to be keeping her here in Hualien.
We try to do dinner with them once every week or so and this time she and her new comp took us to our first hot pots.

They bring you out a huge bowl of broth, vegetables and assorted meats and then set it on a burner in front of you to cook. So you talk while cooking your food. Plus: all you can eat ice cream (8 diffrent flavors like coconut and yam) and rice with sauces. So good! And how much did this huge meal cost us you ask? Oh here, let me go to my currency converter for you so I'm exactly accurate... um it says 100 qui = $3.36 USDA

All shrine/temple-d out

 Tired of seeing, what seems like, the same Taiwanese temple over and over and over again? Ya, us too : ) This one though is a huge one right in our home town so we had to make it our last temple here in Taiwan. This place is super popular and we can hear the fireworks and firecrackers being set off from here to our house - its about a 13 min bike ride.

 I'm sure someone could have told us why all the ribbons were tied to this tree... but no one did ; )

 All the tour buses : )

 A long line of people waiting to enter the temple. Some did dances, most brought gives of flowers or fruit, but this guy on the right beat himself with multiple sharp objects- it wasn't to bad but still a little weird.

 Fire cracker dance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoKEd0pHum8&feature=youtu.be

Dance your way past the burning 'God money' and into the temple: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECgYc6TbRM0&feature=youtu.be

Halloween costume found: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6uUtJAbYWM&feature=youtu.be

 Does that look like the holy grail / ark of the covenant to you???

 Can you see the dragons whiskers?

There's a park next to the temple and it was nice to go sit on the benches there and watch the family's and just see normal things for a little while : ) We had a handful of kids come up to us and ask our names and were we are from. One boy only knew the word 'baby' and kept repeating it in different tones. LOL sometimes Shanae will just out of the blue say 'hello' in Chinese in different tones. I told her its the same thing- you don't know what your saying but other poeple do : )

Even the ditches are pretty

 Riding our bikes along the river/canal/ditch thing and stopped to just sit for awhile.

While at the mall

 The poor sales assistant had a great time helping Shanae in and out of every pink dress the store had : )

 This is Leslee. She's one of my tutorees. I tutor her twice a week and her English is very well, I mean very good : ) She was entered in a child competition of sorts that her mom invited us to (so we could cheer because the one who got the most applause won).

The lady in red is her mother- apparently it was a mother-daughter thing.

She had (count them) 5 costume changes while most of the other kids just did a little dance she did five different numbers and without a doubt took first place. I will never put this much pressure on my child. Ever.

Spring lillies

 The flowers on our porch- couldn't be happier about them : )

 Our neighbor used to have a bunch of trees there but one very early, very loud, morning later now has an empty field and some white neighbors who didn't get to sleep in : ) But who's complaining? I've started tutoring on Saturday morning so I can get some extra cash.

We're so happy to ride our bikes everywhere- traffic is still traffic but it gets us places soooo much faster. Like it only took us 10 min to get to this 'lunch box' place that the Elders recommended. A box of rice with tofu and other meat and vegetables on top. You also get a large piece of flat fried chicken. All for $2.25. So its about free-cheesy : ) Shanae didn't care for it but I really enjoyed the crazy flavors : )

Farewell Elder Daniel

 Daniel keeping the Elders a safe distance from the Sisters : )

Daniel will be serving in the other mission in Taiwan : ) (something that is very common as there are only two missions in Taiwan and they are needed here). He's already left for the MTC in the Philippians.

Faces of the rainbow

 Our class lesson was on how you can tell a lot from a persons facial expression : ) we covered all sorts of emotions but the only one that really stuck was the 'funny face'

 We then made faces out of shapes (the theme of our morning discussion for the past two weeks)

 Yep, they are keepers