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PrincessNicole
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Name: Nicole
Birthday: 12/21/1985
Gender: Female
Interests: cheering, playing tennis, and hanging out with all of my super cool friends
Expertise: IU basketball, Kyle Hornsby, dancing, having F-U-N, and being happy!
Message: message meEmail: email me
AIM:  cheergirl212001
Member Since:
4/19/2003
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| I've begun to keep a blog about my Taiwanese adventures. Be sure to check there for more details on my trip. I'm keeping it mom friendly, that's why I thought a new blog just about my trip would be best. Feel free to check it out and leave comments! http://nhensley-taiwan.blogspot.com/ Enjoy!!! | | |
| So I just got to my elementary school a couple of hours ago. It's huge. There are like 2300 students here....twice the size of Franklin College. Grades 1-6. Everyone is super excited to have us here. The kids performed for us as soon as we got here. We went on a tour of the school, which is huge. There are four floors and a HUGE area for the kids to play in the middle. In between classes the kids have 10-15 minutes to play. That's nice for the teachers to get organized for the next class and for the kids to run off some of that extra energy. "Recess" is also not supervised, which is crazy to me.....but it works! So we're living in an old church. It's really just a building, but it was used for a church. I know when I'm trying to find my way home to look for the cross on the front. (Thank goodness it's a Christian church, I feel a little safer at night sleeping under a cross than a big Buddha!) Downstairs is a baptism bath and an area for communion.....Erin thought it was a bar, haha! Upstairs is where we stay. There are these matresses for us to sleep on the floor. Kyle said it was nice for the prison to donate mattresses for us.....everyone is really chipping in! There're SUPER hard! But we can't complain cause it was so nice of everyone to set things up like they did for us. Before it was a church the upstairs was a dance studio. I totally called that the minute I walked in. There are hardwood floors and a whole wall is covered by a mirror. It reminded me of when I used to take ballet! I was kind of glad to leave Taipei (the capital) which was where we stayed for the first 3 nights. The hotel was nice but the city was a little too overwhelming for me. They compared it to New York City and the noise and the lights definitely matched how I would imagine NYC to be. The pollution was also very bad. Many of the people actually walk around with face masks on. It's so weird seeing everything in Chinese. NO ONE else talks English casually so the only English I hear are from the members of our group. I definitely feel out of the loop. We stick out like a sore thumb not only because of our English speaking, but also because.....we're white, haha, and we don't have black hair. There really is no diversity here (except us). It kind of makes me realize what my English Language Learners must be going through. We've visited a lot of places so far, especially for only being here a short amount of time. We've visited a couple of temples. Their temples are so interesting to me. There will be a statue of Buddha and then a statue of the God of the Ocean and then a statue of an important general all in the same area. Different people worship different Gods, but they all worship together in peace. This is why there has never been a religious war here in Taiwan. Yesterday we went to a market. I definitely saw squid on a stick. Seafood is so big here and I'm just not so big on it. I've been working on my chopstick skills, but there is still room for improvement. We definitely had Pizza Hut last night....that's more my style  | | |
| just as quickly as it came, Christmas is gone it's back to work for Nicole | | |
| Ok, a few updates..... I'm officially old. 22 just doesn't sound as fun as being 21, but that's part of growing up I guess. I've always been mature, but I really feel it lately. I've grown up a lot in the past year. I graduate in 5 months and it's exciting that at this time next year I'll be living a different life. I would just like to reiterate the fact that my sister Tricia rocks my socks. Lol, we dressed up in 80s clothes the other night and were dancin around in tights, legwarmers, & side ponies. She's fun. It's nice to have someone at home that I can goof around with. Remember when you're little and Christmas just NEVER seems to get here. I mean you wait and you wait and you wait and it's STILL not time to open those presents??? Now the tables have turned. How did Christmas get here so quickly? I mean, it's Christmas Eve and i'm sitting here at work and it just seems like any other normal day. I mean I'm sure it'll sink in later when we go down to Cincinnati for Christmas w/ mom's side. But just the other night, we were still out buying presents on the 22nd. THREE days before Christmas. There's just no time. It's CRAZY! So Brent passed his exam for the state troopers, which is AMAZING. I'm really proud of him. I started to think about it the other night and I'm not the only one who has grown up. I mean he's always been mature, but I feel like now he's really trying to get things together and to figure out where he's going, which is something all of us go through at this time of our lives I guess. I really do love him so much. Some friends aren't as wonderful as I like to think they are. What kind of amazing friend stands you up on your birthday? This was the 2nd year in a row I've cried on my birthday and that is not cool. I won't focus on the negative friends, but instead I'll focus on the one amazing, most wonderful person I have in my life. Without Emily Schaf I really don't know what I would do. She's been my best friend since we were 10 (that's 12 years.....over HALF of my life!) and I can honestly say that she has NEVER let me down in anyway. Actually she's done nothing but the opposite. She's the ONLY person I can say has been there no matter what, regardless of the situation, always trying to help. I realize that it's hard in today's world to find someone with the same morals and high integrity that I have. People take advantage of my niceness and my trusting personality. When I was upset the other night Emily and her boyfriend Aaron (who is also amazing) were the ones who really wanted me to be there with them. She truly cares and its genuine. It's rare to find a friend (especially when you're in 5th grade) who you know will be around for your whole life. I really am thankful for my Emily | | |
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