Back on the Blog Wagon

Okay, I will be the first to admit that I have gotten a little bit...ummm...behind on my blog project. And by "behind" I mean that I haven't written a post in almost 5 months. But it's not because nothing has been happening!! A lot has happened in those 5 months:

- Finishing my first year of teaching at TAS

- Taking a trip to Taroko Gorge and driving down the famous East Coast Highway of Taiwan

- Spending a glorious summer in America visiting family and best friends

- Visiting Japan with Jordan as a last hurrah before school started

- Starting my SECOND year at TAS [and realizing that second year is way better than first year]

- Celebrating my quarter-century birthday with new and old friends

- Surviving my second Camp Taiwan experience with a new set of 6th grade kiddos

- Drooling over Adam Levine at the Maroon 5 concert in Taipei

- Hosting an American visitor...one of my best friends from Boulder, Rosebud!

- Going to Hong Kong for a mini-vacation...and actually having time to take a Friday off!

See?? I promise that I haven't just been sitting on the couch doing nothing! In my typical gypsy-like fashion, I have been running around the world, enjoying new experiences, delicious food, and good friends. Can't complain about this life!

Next up this weekend: Oktoberfest Taiwanese-style! This will definitely be a blog worthy post...just you wait!

Double the Gaga

I have always wanted to see Lady Gaga in concert (born this way baby!) and last week I finally got my chance...twice! Yes, I went two nights in a row to see the exact same concert, but it was totally worth it. The first night I went with one of the parents from school because she had extra tickets - and the "seats" were SWEET (it was actually standing room). I'm talking right at the front where I could actually have legitimate hopes that Lady Gaga would notice me and pull me on stage (unfortunately that didn't happen but it could have). She sounded just as good in person as she does recorded - and she definitely wasn't lip-synching. Of course there was quite a lot of cussing and more than a few dominatrix outfits, but what else can you expect from Gaga?

The crowd (with large amounts of pink glow sticks) eagerly awaits the opening of the curtains at promptly 7:30 pm.

Ready to rock!

Can't remember what song this was for, but she glided around the stage like she was on a machine or something. Cool and creepy at the same time.

I wanted to reach out and touch her!

Dominatrix outfit #5

The second night I went with Lori and Georgina, and even though we weren't nearly as close to the stage, we could still see pretty well. The major difference was the fact that we had seats whereas the night before I stood the whole time. The three of us assumed that once the concert started, everyone would stand up because that's what happens at concerts...right? Apparently that is NOT the case in Taiwan. We stood up anyways to dance, and inspired a few other brave souls around us to do the same thing, which resulted in getting told off a few times by the security guards. Luckily we could play the "we're foreigners and don't understand" card, and danced around anyways. I mean come ON...it's a concert! Enjoy yourselves! Other than that minor mishap, Night #2 was just as good as Night #1...and going twice was totally worth it.

TONS of people lined up to buy their Gaga gear. We did not join the queue. 

Ready for the concert to get started! Notice the empty seats around us - that's because most people decided to get there 5 minutes AFTER the concert started. Weird.

Good view of the stage!

Totally on a post-concert high! Ready to head to the W hotel to stalk Lady Gaga.

Celebratory drinks for a successful concert and a legitimate attempt to get Gaga's autograph at the W since she was staying there.

I can now check two things off my life bucket list: see Lady Gaga in concert AND go to a concert in a different country. BOOM! Done.

Riding in Taiwan

I finally found a place to ride in Taipei!! I shipped my helmet and boots here last summer in hopes that I would come across a barn, but the barn actually found me. The mother of one of my students owns a beautiful stable in the mountains only 10 minutes from TAS, and she invited me to come riding with her. I'm so glad I took her up on the offer - the barn is gorgeous and the horses are just lovely. She rides dressage, though, so I'm having to go back to my experiences as a 10 year old (which I'm pretty sure is the last time I did dressage) which is note easy. My body doesn't quite remember what I'm supposed to do! Nevertheless, I am now eagerly looking forward to Saturdays for more reasons than just wanting to sleep in - I have rediscovered my passion on the other side of the world!

Begging for some treats!

Horsey power shower after a long and sweaty lesson.

Just hanging out waiting to get saddled up. Love the nice open spaces!

Oh hello! The horses are all extremely spoiled and love their treats - can't blame them!

Gazing out to freedom.

Spacious outdoor - unfortunately all the rain makes it hard to ride out there.

The biggest of the three barns. All the horses can stick their heads over the edge of the stalls and are quite happy about that!

This is Lara, my current partner in crime who is patiently suffering my attempts to get back into riding shape.

Spring Break in Thailand

I can't believe that Spring Break was only two weeks ago...it feels like it was months ago! Pretty sad that all of those wonderful beach memories have been washed away by work, BUT I have enough pictures from the trip to at least remind me that I was (at one point) feeling relaxed. I left early for Spring Break to attend the EARCOS teaching conference in Bangkok - best decision ever! Not only did I get to hear some really good presentations, I also got to spend a lot of time poolside at the Shangri La - no complaints here! After that, Jordan and I headed down south to the island of Koh Lanta (near Krabi). It was magical! Aquamarine water, white sandy beaches, gorgeous sunsets, lots of Chang beer, and it wasn't too touristy. I could have stayed there forever (not kidding). We also spent a few days in Railay to see the famous limestone cliffs. I never wanted it to end! Alas, we had to come back to Taipei. Only 6 weeks till the next vacation, though!

Here are some pics from the trip...apologies in advance if they make you jealous! :)

Chillin' poolside at the Shangri La - would definitely stay at this hotel again!

Eating street food in Bangkok and enjoy the first (of many) Chang beers of the trip. Yum!

Heading over on the ferry to Koh Lanta. We knew we were in Thailand because it was so freaking hot!

As soon as we got to the Lanta Castaway, we headed straight for the beach! I was checking out the possible activities we could try out that week - a cooking class and snorkeling were at the top of the list!

Hanging out at the hotel bar...which just so happened to be right next to the beach!

Ultimate relaxation.

Postcard moment? This was pretty much the same thing we were doing every night at 7 pm when the sun started sinking beneath the horizon.

One of about 500 sunset photos. Not kidding.

Photo sesh with a perfect background!

We took an awesome four island snorkeling trip one of the days, and had a great time exploring different beaches and seeing TONS of fish!

The wet rat look. It's all the rage.

I still can't get over how gorgeous the water was. You could see straight down to the bottom!

Beach exploration time!

Ready to jump in! The boat guys kept throwing bananas into the water so that the fish would come eat them...it freaked me out a little, not gonna lie.

We also did a really fun cooking class at a place called "Time for Lime." We made all sorts of delicious Thai dishes including chicken coconut soup, spicy fish cakes, and red curry. Yum!

Ready to SMASH the shallot with my huge knife!

Master Chef Thailand. If it had been a contest, we totally would have won.

Chicken and lime coconut soup! Totally delicious.

4 second stir fry! I was worried that my eyebrows were going to be singed off.

Viola! A perfectly presented Thai feast.

The last part of our trip was spent at Railay Beach. The only way to get there is by longboat because the bay is protected by huge limestone cliffs. It was incredibly gorgeous, but a little bit more touristy than Koh Lanta. I was a huge fan of the fact that our hotel had an infinity pool - where I spent most of my time.

Ferry from Koh Lanta to Railay - about to have our first adventure in a longboat!

More beach time. I will never complain about beach time!

Yet another gorgeous Thailand sunset.

Pretty sweet backdrop. Apparently people rock climb up that cliff....we didn't attempt it.

It was amazing how the water changed colors depending on the time of day. We also had fun playing around with the fancy camera settings :)

Longboat lineup!