Howdy folks. I hope to make an actual update this time.

I've given hope of even trying to give you guys a "highlights" of Mom's trip here. We simply did too much. But a few things that where REALLY fun:

---Translating between Mom and Lucy as Lucy taught mom some about mesaging (sp?). We talked for over an hour, with me translating between the two. After we left I found that I was thinking in Chinese and had to translate everything I was thinking into English in order to talk to Mom!

---The Saturday before we left we spent the whole day with James, speaking English the whole time. Not long after I went to bed I got a call from the guy who was driving Mom to the airport. He was asking me (in Chinese) if I could speak Chinese. I understood everything he was saying, but after all day with Mom and James, I was in English mood and kept answer him in English! It went something like "你會說中文嗎?"

"Yes, a little bit."

"什麼? 你會說中文嗎?"

I felt pretty dumb when I finally woke up enough to realize I was talking to him in English. I rather sheepishly told him that I could speak Chinese, but only a little bit. :-X

---The Monday before Mom left she and I were sitting in my room. I was on the computer and I think she was sitting at the desk writing something. At any rate, I got an email from the guy in charge of the honors program at RSU that simply asked me to call his office. Dude, that was an email to put tension in the air. Did he want to tell me that I was in the program? Or was he simply telling those people who hadn't made it in that they hadn't made it? The day for telling us if we had gotten in was way past and I had figured that I hadn't gotten the scholarship. But after Mom and I jumped up and down a few times (to release tension) I called him. And I was in! Dude, that was a really cool moment!

Then he emailed me the offical paper work on it and everything and ...ouch. Problem. They wanted us to live on campus for the first year. Now it's only like 15 minutes from our house, but still, after being on the other side of the world from my family for so long and knowing that I will probably be coming back after I finish college, I was NOT wanting to live outside of the house! I called Dr. Ford right back and asked him if it would be at all possible for an exception to be made for me. He said he would talk to some people about it. Mom and I prayed about it and decided that it would still be worth it to take the scholarship even if I did have to live at the college for the first year. But a few days later Dr. Ford emailed me back saying that since I had already been out of the home for some time and since my home was so close to the college anyway, they would make an exception for me. Yes! Praise God!

---There is a fruit stand a few minutes walk down the road where I normally buy my fruit. The guy who owns the stand and his wife are very sweet people. So one day when we stopped to buy some fruit I introduced my Mom to them. The lady was very interrested in asking my Mom which of the fruits that they sold were availible in the States and which weren't. Most of them are fruits that we have at Wal-Mart, but Mom pointed out one fruit that she had never seen before. The owner very kindly gave one to Mom!

But we didn't eat it that night...and within a few days it had gotten mouldy! We didn't know it had such a short shelf life! So then whenever we walked around town we would look at the other fruit shops trying to find a fruit like that (because we wanted to tell the lady what we thought of it, but we didn't dare tell her that we had let it rot!) But it turns out it is a seasonal fruit and nobody was selling it anymore! Drat.

---Visiting 秀才 was awesome. I wish I could move that school here to Kinmen. The kids and the staff are all so cool. Found out that Jamie is pregnant! Cool beans!

---Got to see Jack again. Vivian was having some sort of eye problem and couldn't come to meet us, but we had a really good time in spite if her absence.

---Hanging out at the night market with Laura was SOO much fun!

---We went to the underground mall at Taipie Main Station. There was a store that sold rocks and minerals. While we were in there, some Japanese ladies came in and were looking at stuff. The owner was speaking to them in English. They understood him and could respond in English, but it obviously wasn't very easy for them. At any rate, when they asked how much an item cost, the store keeper turned to his friend and asked him (in Chinese) "Hey, how much do we add for a forigner?" I laughed out loud and translated what he had said for Mom. They both became very nervous: they didn't know if the Japanese ladies had understood my translation. I listened pretty carefully to everything they said after that and they didn't try to rip the ladies off anymore. lol

Ok, I'm getting off now. I'll try to update my prayer blog later today. Now I've got to go get my toenail worked on...stupid thing is infected again! Really annoying.

Bye!