SiteSeeing, Secretary Style

Yet another holiday

for the poor Teachers of Berhan...

Oh but don't worry,

you won't hear me complaining!

Especially since this holiday included another trip

to lovely Kenting

on the southern end of Taiwan.

This trip was planned by the Secretaries of Berhan

and we were privileged to be able to

spend the weekend with them.

It was all sorts of fun,

and we were able to see many things
I'm pretty positive we wouldn't have found on our own
if we had tried for a million years.

Day 1

We started the day nice and early (7 am)
loading onto the bus in front of the school.

Our first stop unrelated to a bathroom break was the Salt Mountain in Tainan,
where it was ridiculously windy...

Charlene!

This was also where I felt my first ever earthquake!

It was...

exciting.

And cool.

But surreal.

Just Kendra, taking out her anger on the wall again...

Why of course a permanent Santa display
makes perfect sense next to the salt mountain!

This is where we had lunch.

I was going to take pictures of all the food,
but this is all I got.
The rice.
Which is basically all I ate, anyway.
So I guess I got the important stuff!

Heather, Sara, Christina

We were all VERY excited about rice...

Christina, Kendra, Michael, Aaron

[Part of] Aaron, Ashton, Katie, Rayne

Kendra, Michael, Aaron

Our second site seeing stop
was near a place where we went on our first Kenting trip
It's the sunset spot, only on the other side.
We did some extra exploring along the trail and found these little caves.

Michael, Kendra, Aaron, Ashton

Running down the path, like champs.

Fun fact: Ashton takes amazing jumping-off-of-fence-posts pictures.

And for dinner,
another seafood place,
where they so kindly reserved our seats
with the card that the lovely Kendra Kimber is pointing to.

This is how they served up the sushi...

Final stop of day one,
Fire that burns from nothing.
No wood,
Just rocks
Perpetually burning.

Deeelicious ice cream!

We stayed in a hotel.
Us teachers never do that!
It was quite the luxury experience.
I mean, just look at those stairs!

And that pool!
(Where we definitely went for a swim,
 right after we checked in to our room)

DAY 2

Hiking!
We were taken to a park where there were some fantastic trails.
We hiked all over this mountain.
But, of course,
my camera died shortly after we started
and the extra battery was in the bus.
So I only got a few pictures.

Kristopher was mesmerized by the ants.

This happened everytime I tried to take a picture that weekend.
Either my eyes were closed,
Or Rayne was in the background.
This just happened to be both.

Look at that view!

Gabriel,
a student at Berhan and the son of one of the secretaries.
His twin brother, Caleb, stayed home with dad and elder brother Koala.
Yes, that name is for real.

AH!
The beach!
The main reason I came on this trip!



In front - Carrie, Amy, Charlene [with the peace sign]
Behind - Jenny's sister, Jenny, Vivian, Maggie, Sara, Kendra
and I hope that's all of them!

Katie

Rayne and Katie

We got to see a couple lighthouses,
which was really cool.
Mainly just because I have a thing about lighthouses.
I want to live in one when I grow up.

Aaron and Sara

It fits, right?
I thought so, too!

Coolest dog ever.

Heather and Rayne,
at the little hole where we ate lunch
with a few of the secretaries
who somehow avoided pictures.

Just look at it.
One of the most beautiful views I've had the privilege of witnessing.

We were all pretty happy to be here.

Rayne

Some of us were even jumping for joy.

Heather

Kendra

Or getting blown away by the wind... er... beauty of the place.

Dinner = Taiwan style Italian
with these lovely ladies-
Kendra, Ashton, Katie
(not pictured are Rayne and Christina,
not because they are not lovely,
because they totally are,
I just didn't get a good picture of them.)

My first ever pesto.

And more deeelicious ice cream!

These little cards guaranteed us a breakfast of rice and assorted other non-breakfasty foods.

DAY 3

We left Kenting
and headed north to Kaohsiung,
where we were given several hours of leave on ChiJi Island.
The Taiwan RM Aaron,
who is now a Berhan teacher,
spent quite a bit of time there when he was on the mission
and so was able to show us how to get to some sites worth seeing.
Namely a decaying fort and another fantastic light house.

We were up on a mountain of sorts

and once again had to deal with a bit of wind.

ChiJi Island

Kaylee and Rayne

The path to the lighthouse..

A few of us took a detour on the way to the lighthouse
to check out this neat little bunker-thing.

Aaron and Michael

Where we found a strange grave-like hole filled with unidentified bones.
Creepy.

This is the old lighthouse.

And this is the new one!

Me and Rayne!
Again.

Marilyn Monroe reenactment by Kendra -

Heather and Sara

Not sure what this is...
But it looked cool at the time and so I got a picture.

We made a meal out of waffles-in-a-bag

With frozen chocolate covered bananas for dessert.

And homeward bound at last!

Oh yeah and
those screens you see?
Were definitely used for karaoke purposes
for most of the four hour ride down
and also much of the way back.
Oh joy.

That's Peggy walking down the aisle

This was one of those trips
where you see and do so much
in such a short amount of time,
that you need a day just to recuperate when you get home.
But, besides the energy draining side-effects,
it was incredible.


Another Thank You
to the Secretaries of Berhan
for planning this whole extravaganza!