Utah - Grandma's House!

"There it is! There's Grandma's house!" I excitedly exclaimed to my sister. 

We had come to spend about a week with our Grandma.  Our grandma's house isn't really hers since our Grandpa died 2 years ago. My Uncle Ryan bought it from her but she still stays there. So, not only did we get to see our Grandma, but our Uncle, Aunt, and two younger cousins, Lexi and Cruise.

The first day or two we did a LOT of shopping. But it was so much fun! We could buy all sorts of things you can't easily find in Taiwan. I was able to go to thrift shops as well as other nice stores and buy tons of new clothes. (One of my favorite things to do. What girl doesn't like buying clothes? haha) We could also go to Grocery Stores and read the ingredients! A new concept, since the ingredients are always in Chinese back in Taiwan. It nice to be able to walk over to something and think, "Mmm. That looks good. I wonder if I can eat it?" Then look at the ingredients and be able to decide whether or not I can eat it. Bam! Just like that. 
It was pretty hot. I mean, Utah is a dessert. And what better way to cool off than to swim! My Grandma took us, as well as our little cousins, to Cowabunga Bay Water Park in Los Vegas! It was a BLAST.

As soon as we entered the park and applied our sunscreen, I grabbed Emily's arm shouting, "Come on! Lets go, Daddy!" We rushed over to a bunch of slides, only to have to wait in a long line. That's the one bad thing about water parks; the long lines. But it was worth it! We went on all sorts of slides, Twisty, dark, ones with 'toilet bowls' (for lack of a better name), and all sorts of slides.

On of them could sit all four of us. It went straight for awhile then suddenly dropped us on a hug wave-thing. It sent us really far on one side, then to the other until we dropped down the whole in the middle.
 My dad even convinced me to go on the Rocket slide. I was terrified, but I did it! They stick you in this small tube where you stand on a little platform, legs crossed, arms to the side, and your head back. The attendant pushes a button, but you still stand there for about 7 seconds. After those seven panicky seconds, the platform falls and disappears. You go shooting straight down at top speed! My Dad says I screamed pretty loud when the platform fell, haha!
I managed to have enough time to go on every single slide (Except for one that I wasn't heavy enough for :/ )

Afterwards, we stopped at Taco Bell. Because of all my allergies, I think we gave the poor lady the hardest order she ever had! We didn't home till really late.
It was so good to play with our little cousins and spend time with our Grandma. There's something about Grandmas that are so special. :) It was great to meet our cousin and her new baby as well as some other family. All in all we had a great time.

Back in the USA

The last week of school was absolutely crazy; I had finals all week and the next day we were on a plane! Wednesday was probably the busiest day. 
The night before, I had a sleepover with some friends. In the morning, I walked over to the school and finished my finals. We only had school till noon so in between my class; I (as well as many others) had our yearbooks signed by as many of our friends as possible. As soon as my last class ended, my dad and sister were waiting downstairs to take me to lunch. TAAS (the school my mom works at and my sister attends) were having lunch at a restaurant for all the staff and their families. I was kind of sad that I didn't have much time to say goodbye to all my friends, but we were already a little late. With some help from our trusty guide and friend, Shin, we found the restaurant and ate a TON of food. As soon as I got home, I had to pack everything for our trip back to the states. After I finished, I went to the Senior Graduation for my school with some friends. I got home pretty late so I went straight to bed. 

Early the next morning, we lugged our suitcases up the 97 steps into the van, drove to the airport, and hopped onto a very VERY long airplane ride. The first flight was 11, almost 12 hours long. The second was about 3 hours long. It was pretty miserable. Of course I had to get sick the night before we left. :/ I was kind of in denial, I just couldn't be sick, not now! But, after a few hours on the plane, there was no doubt that I was sick.

Eventually, we arrived in Seattle. I was sick, jet lagged, and absolutely exhausted, but I was back. Walking out the entrance of the Seattle airport brought back a flood of memories. Memories from the last time we were in this airport, leaving the States to go to the foreign land of Taiwan. I remember waving goodbye to Caleb and Stephen after they dropped us and our luggage off. Afterwards, I told my mom I needed to go to the bathroom. After making sure no one else was in there, I just sobbed my eyes out. I hadn't really cried about leaving until then. It just hadn't seemed completely real I guess. Anyways... I don't know why I'm mentioning that, I hadn't told anyone that because it's a little embarrassing, even if it was a natural thing to do. I'm SO glad that we moved to Taiwan though, as I have mentioned many times before. It was great to be back though. 
As I stepped out of the airport doors and stepped onto American soil I thought, "Wow. I'm really back!' 
Soon, Stephen loaded his truck with our luggage and we started on our 3 hour drive to his house.

It was so exciting to open the door of their house and see them all again. Some other friends (the Jones) came by to welcome us back as well. That night it was wonderful to get some much needed sleep. My hours and days were very confused besides being sick. It is kind of funny how we arrived in the San Francisco airport before we left Taiwan (12 hours earlier). 

On Sabbath, we went to the Cashmere Church. Again, it was so exciting to see everyone! My special music went… well, okay considering how congested I was and how sore my throat was just the day before. I was feeling better that Sabbath, praise God.
I was touched by all the food people had made for me. I was able to eat a whole plateful of food at potluck! Something I haven’t been able to do for a while.
After potluck, we went for a hike with the church. I usually don’t care that much for hikes, but this was an exceptional hike. It was so much fun catching up with all my friends, laughing about old memories, and just being together.

Sadly, we had to leave the next day. We knew we were coming back and we were excited about going to Utah.
So, right now I’m in Utah! But I’ll tell you more about my trip later… ;)

Cambodia

"Ugh! It's no use trying to sleep. I'm too light of a sleeper." I thought.  I opened my eyes and looked over at my friend, Gracie. She was fast asleep and had been most of the trip.
You see, during spring break, I went with the 8th grade of TAAS on their mission trip to Cambodia. My parents were both helping, my sister was going, so it made sense that I would go too.
Our adventure started at 3 in the morning. We all met at one of the MRT stations where we had hired a tour bus to take us to the airport. Once everyone was there along with their luggage, we set off on our long journey. At the airport we managed to get all 23 of us (counting myself and staff) through without any troubles.  The flight was about four hours. I sat beside Gracie, who promptly fell asleep as soon as the plane left the ground.

The heat smacked our faces as we stepped out of the airplane. Our first stop in Cambodia was Dairy Queen!  We hadn't had that since the States, but they had one right outside the airport.
The next leg of our journey was the longest; an eight hour bus ride to the orphanage where we were heading to.
It was dark by the time we finally arrived at the orphanage. We were surprised how hot it was even though it was dark outside! The director/founder of the orphanage and school met us as soon as we got off the bus. He showed the girls and the boys  to the different houses we'd be staying at.
We were separated into two rooms where they had some bunk beds for us. There were some scary squat pots outside as well as the showers.
Showers; those were definitely fun! Now, most of these eight graders are really rich kids and not used to poverty like this at all. I could tell from the very beginning that this was going to be an interesting trip. If you wanted to shower, you had to go outside where there was a pump and pump your water into a bucket. So, we had cold bucket showers. The first night, the girls were very loud and there were a couple screams when they discovered some frogs.  Although everyone was kind of freaked out by the bucket showers outside, it became a lot of their favorite time of day. The cold water felt amazing after our long days under the scorching sun.
So, after everyone had showered and set up their mosquito nets, we went to bed. The frogs outside were SUPER loud, but I was so tired I fell asleep anyways.
In the morning, we all went over to the boys house to have worship with Tim. After that he showed us around the area. I thought it was really cool they didn't have an orphanage, but rather many homes where there would be parents who would take care of and raise like ten kids or so. I think they would feel more loved that way and like they have a family.
After he showed us around, we were taken to the work site. The whole reason for this mission trip was to try and help build a playground for the orphans.

We were split up into groups and worked on different projects. Some worked on yielding the brick wall for a sand box, others on a swing set, and I ended up mostly helping with a climbing ladder of some sort. I learned how to chisel pretty well. I also helped drill the holes into the wood. It's was melting outside under the sun as we worked.

At about noon, everyone went and ate lunch. I always had to go to the hot, stuffy kitchen to cook my own food. But it turned out to be very difficult to keep the ants out of all my food. There was always surplus of delicious mangos though. After lunch the kids had the choice of either working outside again, or helping in the classrooms at the school.

After lunch on Tuesday, I went to help teach the kids at the school. I think I ended up in second grade, but I'm not a hundred percent sure. When I came into the classroom, there were two teachers. They had the students greet me with their traditional standing, then 'bowing' their head with their hands pressed together. They said something in Cambodian as well, but of course I was clueless to what it meant. After some difficult communication, I found that the teachers wanted me to play a games with the kids.
"They kids love to play games and get to know new teachers?" They explained. I quickly racked my brain for a game to teach and play with these kids. I finally came up with a game, the class Thumbs Up, 7 Up. Through translation, I taught them how to play. They really enjoyed it and played it multiple times. After they had finished, the teacher told me to do something else.
"Like what?" I asked.
"Anything!" She answered
"Well, that's helpful." I thought "I have no idea!"  Finally, the teachers gave some vague ideas and I decided what I could do. I had each of the children come and write their name on the blackboard. Afterwards, I pointed to a name and then the student would stand and tell me what their favorite thing to do was. It was fun learning the names of the children and what they like to do.

After we finished, class was dismissed and the teacher left. The kids quickly grabbed my hands and arms. I started swinging them around by their arms. They squealed and asked to do it again and again until I was tuckered out and it was time for their last class. I followed them into the classroom and realized there was no teacher! A few minutes later, Tim came by and saw me alone. He called the teacher but they didn't answer.
"Sorry to put you in this situation, but can you teach them? I can't get ahold of the teacher. It's Art class now."
"Uh, ok..." I answered somewhat timidly.
Tim brought me some colors, which I handed out to the kids as well as a sheet of paper. I just drew a bunch of things on the blackboard and had them copy it on their paper. I had a few misbehaving little boys, but that was soon taken care of when Tim stopped by and saw what was happening. He went outside with him and gave him a whooping with a stick! He wasn't munch trouble for me after that.
During our time there, we also took a trip into town with some of the older students and made some friends with them. We drove to a tourist shopping area as well as the regular market. We all road in the back of a tiny pickup and the road was no where near smooth, on the contrary it was super dusty and bumpy. Some of the bumps sent us flying and squealing.  We bought some souvenirs as well as traditional outfits to wear to church. On Thursday (my sister's birthday!) we went Angkor Wat. It was SO magnificent. It was all so cool looking. There was one problem though, and it was making everyone miserable.... It was 104 degrees Fahrenheit (43 degrees Celsius) !!! We were melting! It was worth it though. ;)

In the end, this mission trip was all about those cute little Cambodian kids. I only taught at the school once, but a few of my students would come to the worksite to see me every time they had a break. They would smile and  say "Teacher! Teacher!", then try to take me with them back to the school. I felt so happy that we could help build a playground for them. Before, they only played some sort of game involving sticks and rocks, I'm not sure how they play it, but a few of the other 8th graders learned and played with them. I'm so glad we could do something for these precious orphans, they were so thrilled at the idea of having a playground.

"Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality." (Romans 12:13 NIV)