A Look Around

It has been kind of strange since I have come here, it seems that many of our weekends they are warning us that there will be a typhoon, this weekend was another one of those. Yuling had mentioned Friday that a typhoon might hit Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday time period so I wasn't too worried for this weekend. Yesterday morning it had been windy and rainy but it is like that generally so again I wasn't worried, but when I was in the kitchen I heard a noise outside, I looked out the window and could see Yuling, Joseph, and Yuling's dad- they were taking things inside the buildings and tying things down. Natalie came home soon and then we heard someone outside, it was Yuling coming upstairs; she told us that the typhoon was going to be pretty bad and that we needed to take everything inside the kitchen and do a major lock down on all of our windows and apartment. So we quickly moved everything into the kitchen and then helped tie down our tables together.
Through this typhoon Natalie and I have been realizing more and more how many people we have here that care for us and help to make sure that we are aware of what is going on. We had dinner plans last night with Amy and some of her classmates, as we were pulling up to the restaurant Grace called Natalie and suggested that we should go home as there was a typhoon coming. Also while we were eating Stephanie called Natalie and told her that church was canceled for the next day and that we would be smart to head home soon. As we were heading out Amy and all of her friends told us to get home soon and be safe. We stopped at the grocery store and stalked up with things on our way home. Right after we had gotten home the Sister Missionaries called us to check and make sure that we had gotten home from the restaurant (they didn't trust that I remembered the way home) and to tell us that church was canceled. Then this morning Yuling called to tell us that church was canceled and that she felt that it might be better/safer for us to move downstairs. As we have realized how many people we have that are looking out for us we have felt very blessed the last couple of days.
Our day today was a little long, the worst of the storm actually came before we even got downstairs, by the time we were all moved it was actually starting to calm down. I am pretty excited though because I had time to sit down and just look through all the resources that there are for us to use I have planned my next 4 weeks of lessons, except for the afternoon classes where I have to do that with Natalie. It feels so good to have all that done, especially with Nathan and Sallee coming (for those who are interested: they leave in 11 days, arrive in Taiwan in 13 days, and I will see them in 15 days--no I'm not counting down, I would never do that ;D) I will not want to take the time and plan my lessons. A couple of hours ago Yuling called us in the office and asked if we would like to come back upstairs, we said yes as we didn't really feel like getting up at 6 or so to get out of the office before kids arrived. I guess that the typhoon has changed its course and it will not be hitting Hualien at all (originally we were supposed to be getting the eye), we are a little dissapointed as school and work has been cancelled for all of Taiwan tomorrow, except Hualien that is (Yuling was pretty disappointed also). So good thing that I got all of my lessons and evaluations done earlier.

Here I am in the office modeling the flooded field outside.

Natalie chowing down on our lunch of frozen pizza.

A close-up of our lunch (yeah it tasted about as good as it looks- NOT GOOD!), Natalie ended up getting sick from it later in the day.

This just makes me sad, this is the garden that is right beside the school, I took this picture this morning- they had just planted these a couple of weeks ago.

So this morning we got a call from Yuling telling us that church was canceled and that the typhoon hadn't even hit yet, she felt that we should move downstairs to the office and that she would be by in an hour to open it up for us, these next few pictures are of all our stuff that we brought down with us (we really didn't know how long we were going to be there so we brought probably close to our whole kitchen of food :D)

Natalie eating her frosted flakes (she was super excited to have gotten them)

Part of the food that we brought down.

Our towels- they were both wet (funny story Natalie dropped hers when we were going downstairs and I dropped mine when we were coming back up)

A picture of the sky from last night.

Our group shots that we took before we raced home after dinner, Amy's friends were so nice and fun to hang out with (Note: Amy is the one in the front with the red shirt on and white jacket)

A picture that I took this morning of our deck- look how far the water came in.

The poor plants outside had all fallen down.

This sign is normally at the end of the street, Saturday afternoon they took it down and brought inside the gate- when Natalie came home later she and the Chu's missed the street because they didn't see the sign.

I took several pictures of the sky Saturday mid-afternoon, these are them (notice how pink the sky is)

This is our porch after Yuling came through and had us move everything, I think that it kind of looks really sad.

Our kitchen/living room (where everything was placed)

A closer view of everything in the kitchen (notice my clothes drying- I had just done my laundry when Yuling came upstairs)

One of the play structures all tied up.

The other play structure tied up also, it is a little harder to see this one.

Natalie and I are pretty excited about our lesson ideas for this week. I am sorry that I didn't write at all last week but I am thinking that I got so far behind that I probably wont catch up, it is probably better if I just start from here and go forward (every time I try and sit down and start writing I can't concentrate because there is so much to write about). I am hoping that as I get more used to my schedule that I will be able to plan better my writing. I love you lots and hope that you are having a wonderful Sunday (calmer at that). Loves to all, this is ~Betherd~, signing off!