Karaoke to Kenting

So basically I have been awful at blogging. Life in Taiwan has been crazy busy and exhausting, but I am loving it nonetheless. Here goes trying to summarize the last nine days in one post.

5/10: We were forced by our professors to stay up until 11:30pm to give a spiritual thought at a College of Nursing meeting via Skype. The sound wouldn't work, so they could hear us, but we couldn't hear them...it made for some interesting communication and an exhausting day at clinical the next day!

5/11: Karaoke with the ICU nurses. Let's just say I haven't danced that hard in ages and I thought my voice would be gone the next day. The KTV place was really nice and had a buffet in it...love Asia and their karaoke obsession!

5/12: Last day of ICU clinical! We took a tour of the oncology unit at Chi Mei Hospital and learned a little bit about how the unit is run. It was interesting to learn that chemotherapy, and treatments for resulting complications are more similar, between Taiwan and the U.S., than different. Many patients do, however, implement traditional medicine practices as a supplement to western medical treatments and procedures.

5/13: We left for Kenting at 7am. Some of Jim's (one of our instructors) friends drove over an hour our of their way to pick us up from our apartments...again, the people here are incredible. Kevin is a scuba instructor in Kaoshiung and he brought two of his younger students Davit and another boy in his early 20s who we didn't have an English name, so we named him Kyle...so entrusting! On our way down Kevin overheard us saying we were hungry, so of course he stopped. He ordered all ten of us mango slush drinks and these delicious waffles with honey. We ate them on a cliff overlooking the ocean...no big deal. We arrived at the Resort Aloha Waterfront around 10am. It was absolutely incredible! We were the only people staying there, so the owners took us on a tour of the grounds and the rooms when we first got there. The property was covered in beautiful flowers, palm trees, a natural swimming pool, a hot tub, and a wet bar. All nine of us girls shared a room, so that was fun! Although we are together pretty much all day whenever we don't have clinical, I still feel like being in two separate apartments at our dorms is debilitating to our bonding time ;), so I loved the nightly slumber parties in Kenting!

After being awed by our resort we walked a whole 2 minutes down to the beach...it was so beautiful. We had lunch at the resort and then were off for scuba diving! We had a blast doing our first beach dive, but it was a ton of work! We spent about an hour sizing and loading up our gear. Once we got to the beach we assembled our equipment in the blazing sun, pulled our wetsuits over our sticky bodies, and hiked through the rocks to the water carrying our thousand pound air tanks. Our first dive was only about 40 feet, but we saw some awesome coral and fish!

That night we went to have American food at a restaurant further in the city. I have never enjoyed a chicken burrito as much as I did that night. A few of us went back to the resort and relaxed in the hot tub under the beautiful stars as Katelyn and I shared the best piece of oreo cheesecake.

5/14: Day 2 in Kenting was equally as fabulous! We did a beach dive in the morning and saw the most beautiful coral and fish! Aside from falling on the coral as I exited the water with my thousand pound equipment on, I loved it! After lunch at the resort we went out for our boat dive. We completed two dives, I think to about 70 feet. I really appreciated not having to hike to the water with all the equipment, so I enjoyed the boat dives quite a bit more than the shore dives, but they were all great! We deemed Kyle's car as the "party car" and a party it was. The darling boy hardly spoke a word of English, but would do his best to sing along to Hilary Duff and Beyonce...I loved it! That night we had a fabulous dinner in town with the resort owners and our friends, Kevin, Kyle, and Davit. We went to the night market in Kenting which was really fun! People in Kenting were much less surprised to see white faces, because they are used to tourists, but we were equally shocked when we ran into some people from Ireland. We declined their invite to the pub, but it was fun to talk to someone in English!

5/15: We were all sad to leave Kenting on Saturday. A few of us spent the morning on the beach sipping coconuts. We had lunch at the wet bar with all the fish and tadpoles nibbling our toes. It was great! We left our resort around 2pm for a trip to monkey mountain in Kaohsiung. I was setting myself up for disappointment after Kevin told us a lot of the monkeys have been removed, because they are very aggressive. We got there and what I pictured to be an uninhabitable mountain, was actually a lush, green, college campus! It was really beautiful and I was thrilled when we actually saw monkeys....many of them! I absolutely loved it!

We had delicious dumplings and beef noodles for dinner and naturally, the owners of the restaraunt gave it to us for free...there is no arguing with these people! Kyle talked three of us into eating a spoonful of this spicy pepper seasoning, and being the intelligent girls we are, we did it. Not a good idea, but hey, we stood our ground. We got back to our dorm around 11pm and said our goodbyes to Kevin, Kyle, and Davit. After growing so close, it was hard end such an amazing weekend with such incredible people, especially knowing that it is unlikely we will ever meet again...thank goodness for Facebook!

5/16: On Sunday evening we were invited to dinner at Dr. Wu's house, one of the ICU physicians. They had hot pots as well as Pizza Hut...delicious! We followed up dinner with a competitive night of Wii against his 11 year old son, who was incredibly skilled! It was fun to see how close the unit was as all of the nurses attended the dinner. Dr. Chen took us to his home afterwards where we visited, played with his four beautiful children and listened to them play the piano. He and his wife took us all our for mango tsua bing...delicious as always! It was so fun to spend time with Dr. Chen's family. I could just feel of their family's goodness, love, and unity.

5/17: First day of our community nursing rotation. The four of us, plus our two nurses were split into two cars, but we essentially spent the whole day together, which was way fun! On our way to take a tour of a nursing home, we stopped at a nursery to look at flowers. It was wonderful! There was a crate of Mimosa plants and I was infatuated by the leaves' folding abilities every time they were touched. I spent a good amount of time just touching the leaves...over and over again. The nurses were amused and tried to buy us a plant, but unfortunately we decided against it due to the jail cell nature of our windowless dorm room.

After the nursing home, we stopped by a Buddhist temple, had lunch, went to a patient's home and to another temple. It is common for families in Taiwan to hire a caregiver from another country, commonly Indonesia or the Philipines, to look after their homebound family member. It is amazing to see what good care these individuals take of the elderly and their close relationships with them; they truly become part of the family.

That afternoon we took a tour of the Traditional Chinese Medicine Unit at the hospital. I recieved baguanfa, a type of suction cup therapy, on my back and accupunture in my leg and foot. I still have a perfectly round grey bruise on my back, but luckily the accupunture didn't have any debilitating effects- I was concerned when the doctor inserted the 1 inch needle all the way to the hub!

We went bowling with a few ICU nurses, the pharmacist, dietitian, and physician. Naturally they brought us Pizza Hut...ha. I didn't do so well bowling...I am still convinced the earthquake tilted the lanes ;)

5/18: Second day of community. I visited five patient's homes with my darling nurse preceptor Fenny. Our first three visits were with Dr. Lee, but before that we had to make a quick stop at the beach...well of course! We had a fun day full of nasogastric tubes, mango tsua bing, Foley catheters, and wintermelon tea. I love working in the community. Maybe it is because I am fascinated by seeing how people live and what they value, I love getting to know different families or maybe it is for the selfish reasons of boosting my self-esteem, because the people here are so so nice! Everyone we have visiting tells me "piao liang" or "beautiful"; I think in reality they are just shocked by my height and my blonde hair. It took my ten minutes yesterday to understand that my nurse was trying to tell me I looked like "Barbie doll" and now she talks about it all the time (today is was my eyelashes)...so funny! When we were done visiting patients, Fenny took me to Chikanlou（The Chamber of Red Hill), which is a historical site of administration from the Dutch occupation. It was fun to see more of Tainan and great that Fenny wanted a picture of me in front of everything we saw! She is fantastic!

Last night we were invited to a Guao Baba's house, one of our dear ward members. We had the most fantastic curry, pineapple, watermelon, and chocolate BROWNIES (I swear they don't believe in chocolate here)!!! It was definitely my favorite meal since I have been in Taiwan. After we had finished the meal and were discussing the beattitudes, another ward member showed up with three boxes of Pizza Hut...and of course, we were expected to eat it! I was so so full! Apparently people think pizza is the only thing American's eat..ha! It is kind of a relief to know what to expect when you put something in your mouth, unless of course you pick the squid or kimchi pizza :)

It was wonderful to be with church members and feel of their strong spirits. Some of them shared their conversion stories, bringing to light the everlasting impact of missionary work. I was amazed to learn that three different church members were all first contacted by missionaries in the 711...always be prepared! I believe the majority of the ward members come from part member families. I was so impressed by their strength and faithfulness. It was one of those moments where you reflect on your life and realize you have had is so easy, but not without cost, "For unto whomsoever much is given, much shall be required" (Luke 12:48). I am grateful for my membership in the church and the blessings I have been afforded. I pray that I will be able to live up to what the Lord requires of me in serving others and extending to them the love of God.