The Allen's Online Blog

So, from all of the bouncing around on our semi-violent scooter, I ended up with an injured back. Through a connection at school, I found an English speaking chiropractor and made an appointment for the following evening. Unfortunately, this connection was a bit lacking in the directions area and sent me off with "Go under the bridge. Take the road until it ends, then go right. Go to the light and take a left. Then turn right, then left, and his is the third house on the left." Those were the actual directions. No road names. No landmarks. I should have never left the house, but of course, I did.
I left a good bit of time, assuming that I would get lost. After wandering for about 30 minutes, I called to say I was lost, and to ask for directions. The woman who answered the phone responded by saying, "Ok. Just call when you get here!" Hmmm... So, I continued down the poorly paved road weaving through fields. I never actually reached a stop light to turn left at. In fact, I didn't reach anything for quite some time. After about an hour and a half of nothingness, the bumpy trail dumped me onto a road with a lone structure: a gas station. From this gas station, I could see the distant lights of a city, my city. I pulled in and called the chiropractor again to see if he could help me find my way. I had to hand the cell phone off to the attendant so that he could explain where I was. The gas station attendant talked to my chiropractor for quite some time, until my phone died. Being a very kind man, the attendant used his own cell phone to call the chiropractor back. Eventually he handed the phone back so the chiropractor could inform me that I had left the city and crossed a mountain and was too far away to bother coming back, so I should just try to go home. Go figure. So, I started up my scooter... wait. Let's try again. I started up my scooter... No. The scooter wouldn't start. In fact, I was completely out of gas, but had been to caught up in finding my way to notice. So, there I was, in the dark, lost on a mountain with no cell phone, no gas, and no English speakers. Praise God the scooter died at a gas station and not on those back mountain roads! After fueling up, I tried to get directions home, but no one spoke English, so I just headed back the way I came. Amazingly enough, I made it back to my apartment that same night.
I rescheduled my appointment for the next morning, but this time I took Phillip with me. Naturally, we got lost again, but we did stay on this side of the island. The chiropractor ended up coming to pick us up. Did I say "chiropractor?" Turns out he actually specializes in acupuncture. So, he took us to his home, I laid on a sofa in his living room, he put long needles into my back and then lit them on fire to send healing herbal heat into my muscles. I apparently have a slipped disc, and if the acupuncture doesn't help, he's sending me to a chiropractor. He says if I was in the States they would have recommended surgery, but such things aren't necessary here. Imagine that.

Labels: Adventures

My Grandmother is always telling me that I should hold on to the cute things my students say, because I'll appreciate the stories as time goes by. So, here's something cute.
Phillip started working as an ESL tutor for the same school where I am the first grade teacher. The kids really make a big deal about me being married. They whisper and giggle whenever Phillip visits the classroom. Some of them are appalled and say they hate married people, some of them think it's funny that a boy and girl can like each other, some of them think it's romantic, and some of them are just baffled that we can be married and not have children. One of the girls tries to make me jealous by hugging Phillip or holding his hand, and then reporting to me later that she was touching my husband.
At lunch the other day, the girls were being dramatic about me talking to Phillip. One of the girls asked me, "Why does Mr. Allen always want to sit with you?" I leaned in and whispered, "I think he likes me!" They all squealed and giggled and covered their mouths in shock. Then, another girl leaned over and whispered in my ear, "I think he loves you!" and then screamed at the horror of her own statement. This started the table talking about how crazy married people can be. The girl who had whispered in my ear got the table's attention with something that seemed like it must be big news. "Do you want to know something so crazy?!?" she asked. "My mom likes my dad's bum-bum!" This time, I had to laugh too.

P.S.
I'm now playing Santa Claus for in the school musical. :D

Labels: work

Is it hard to believe it's been a year? If you had asked me a year ago where I saw us in the future, I would have been totally off. It's amazing how many challenges, changes, joys, blessings, adventures, and struggles we've gone through in our first year of marriage. It seems like so long ago that we were celebrating our marriage. In a sense, it feels like we've been married forever. Not in a bad way, it's just hard to imagine life before/without Phillip. And now, here we are in Taiwan, still at the beginning, still trying to figure out our future.
We took the weekend to get away to Sun Moon Lake, a scenic spot in the mountains. Surprisingly, we survived with very little adventure. Our only challenge was the usual communication barrier, and a bank card that wouldn't work. So, we spent very little money and accepted a free ride from strangers. It was a beautiful place, and it's always nice to breathe the air outside of the city. You'll have to check out some of the pictures from the weekend, it's definitely different from where we're living.

Labels: vacation