Running + Free Food = A long, good week

Hi y'all!

Sorry I didn't blog last week…I was a little busy.  You see, last weekend I  had two events that kept me pretty busy:

Some were fun...

Some less fun...

Last weekend I completed my second half marathon…I am officially an ASICS run finisher…and I have the shirt and medal to prove it.
This half marathon was in beautiful Nantou, which I had heard was hilly and lovely.  I don't know if I currently consider hilly to be lovely, as running it was very difficult and certainly more challenging than my first half marathon!

Taiwanese photographers are not prepared for my glow-in-the-dark skin

I'm almost done…can you see how much my sunburn has progressed?

So I would like to give the following thanks to everyone who helped me make this half marathon a success:

• To my awesome school, especially Mei-yen, for helping me book a taxi for 4:50am
• To the random guy who let me follow him at 5:00 am to find the bus to take me to the run
• To whomever chose the warm-up music to be One Direction
• To the girl encouraged by her mother to "yell in English, it's a foreigner" as I ran by
• To the multiple people who told me I was getting sunburned (they meant well)
• To the angry man who refused to allow the Chinese tourists to photograph me running (they were clearly in Nantou on holiday) and was appalled that they would exploit our inability to run away uphill
• To the foreign CTRRA members who cheered me on in English, looked super exciting to see me, and told me I was the #1 foreigner…because I was the only foreigner running
• To the guy on the bus home who convinced the driver to let us eat on the bus (because the food smelled better than we did)
• To my 5th graders for actually showing maturity in sitting down with me on the floor for class the next day and staying there (but not for laughing at me as I attempted to walk down the stairs)

This is for you all...

I am so glad this run is over but looking forward to another one…maybe in June (if I'm able to sign up in time) or in October in New York?  Who knows??? 

Aside from this delightful success, life has been great in preschool…we made hot cross buns for Easter:

Fun fact: When making hot cross buns, there is a lot of waiting…because we had to wait a lot for Jesus to rise:)

But perhaps even more excitingly, one of my colleagues and the parents of one of my preschoolers are new parents.  As of one month ago this week, they both had baby boys.  Why is this exciting for me?  Because Taiwan has a strange tradition.  I say strange because to me the idea of buying lots of people things one month after having a baby seems CRAZY considering how broke and tired you already are. 

But on the plus side, I benefit from this.  You see, when you have a girl, you are required to buy all of your friends/family/colleagues cake.  But when you have a boy…

(insert my eye roll about the state of gender affairs and the patriarchy in the world)

You have to buy your friends/family/colleagues a rice and chicken dinner!!

Wait, what is in the box?

Enough rice and chicken for two days?

Yep, it's pretty sweet for me, especially considering I got two boxes in one week! That meant 4 nights of no cooking for me!  (but I won't be making chicken and rice for awhile)

Of course, in case you just worry that's not enough to appropriately celebrate your child's arrival…

Another box?

With cakes???!!!

SO MUCH FOOD.  All the better to post-race carboload with! (That's a thing, right?? Right???)

I can't promise a lot of excitement this week…but in two weeks my AMAZING sister Jennifer and my equally AMAZING friend Jenn are coming to visit! (and no, they aren't the same person)!  So get excited to hear about all of our adventures!