His and Her Stories: November 2012

Sunday, November 25, 2012

A Very Happy Thanksgiving To You

We have so much to be thankful for this year. We're so thankful for the opportunity we got to come here to Taiwan and teach. We're thankful for the timing of this blessing in our lives, and for everything it has taught us.

Being in Taiwan has made our relationship grow stronger and develop more than we could have expected or hoped. It has challenged us as individuals also, and given us perfect opportunities to tackle the things we have been too afraid to try before. We are so grateful for this all around development and recognize none of it could have been possible without faith in Heavenly Father. Mostly we are thankful to Him for guiding us together, bringing us here, and keeping us safe while still helping us progress. (Everyone knows progress always comes with some bumps and bruises along the way- we're thankful for those scrapes too, the scars make great stories!)

On top of all our blessings, we're thankful that some of my extended family was willing and able to come visit us and spend time with us here in Taiwan. My fabulous aunt and cousin came to spend a week in Taiwan; see the sights, eat the food, and help us have a marvelous Thanksgiving.

Even though we still had work everyday, it was so fun spending the evenings chatting with them and playing games. On Saturday we finally got to spend the whole day with them so we took them to Lukang where they bought some temple fans of their own, plus some other great gifts to take back to family. Here's some pictures of all the fun we got to share with them.

Cousin Carie, me, and Aunt Deb. My cousin is gorgeous. My Aunt is a rock star (literally, everyone wanted pictures with them.)

Armed with a hand drawn map and directions, my family trekked to Costco in Taichung for the *last* pumpkin pie, just to make our Thanksgiving that much better.

You can't eat pumpkin pie in Asia with a fork, come on! Are you crazy? You gotta eat it with chopsticks!

Here's our whole group with some of the waiters who wanted a picture with us at our favorite restaurant: TASTY. It was our official Thanksgiving meal on Friday night since we worked late on Thursday and we don't have an oven. Duck is pretty much the Taiwanese turkey, right?

While doing some shopping before Thanksgiving dinner, we came across these good lookin' mannequins. We couldn't say no to a photo op.

Ray has been working hard designing a new game, so while Carie was here they played a couple tester rounds. It was super intense and lots of fun to watch them get into it!

While we were in Lukang there was a random huge parade full of temple shrines carried on structures like this one. There were also fire works and lots of drumming and crashing of symbols. They were obviously happy and having fun. We, a little shell shocked from the sudden crowding of the narrow street stepped aside and whipped out our cameras and then enjoyed the show!

Later that night we put my family on a train and sent them off to Taipei so they could catch their flight back to America this morning. It was so great having them here, we will forever be thankful for this particular Thanksgiving. With only 40 days left in our journey we're working hard to soak up every last experience and memory we can. Again, we're so thankful we came, and we're excited for our next adventure after Taiwan.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

The Beach...FINALLY!

When Ray and I were packing for this excursion, I lovingly packed my bathing suit and thought of riding the bus to the beach every weekend. I could just imagine the heat, the humidity, the salty water, gorgeous waves, and myself soaking up every second of living in a tropical country.

WAKE UP CALL!

As it turns out, there's not a swimming beach anywhere near us in Changhua. My students actually laughed at me when I asked if there was one nearby. To add insult to injury, the Taiwanese aren't really the "swimmer" type so then my kids taunted me and said they'd call the ambulance for me when I tried to go swimming! So rude.

At long last though, we committed ourselves to going to Kenting, which is basically the entire southern tip of Taiwan and is the country's first national park. The park includes of course fabulous foliage, but also stunning coral reefs and white sand beaches. The trip was great and was probably the most relaxing, enjoyable weekend we've had in Taiwan. Gorgeous scenery, delicious sea food, our first scooter ride, and did I mention the beach?

Our first day we just bummed around on the beach for several hours. Got a good sun tan, and by tan I mean burn. Gosh it was great. While I soaked up some sun, Ray played in the sand making drip castles and suddenly became a new tourist attraction. I caught a picture at the start, at one point he must have had roughly 10 people surrounding him intently watching his construction.

After the beach we rented some scooters (which are the only way to go in Kenting) and explored as far as Sail Rock, which conveniently took us past yet another night market. At Sail Rock, we also watched the sunset and climbed out over some old coral to get a closer look at the giant rock that is supposedly supposed to resemble President Nixon's profile.

Sun's a gettin' ready to set!

Here's Ray sitting on the fun frog chairs they provide to enjoy the sun set.

Sail Rock a.k.a. "Nixon's Head"

This is right next to Sail Rock, the color of the water was just breath taking.

As was the entire process of watching the sun set and turn all the clouds different shades of pink.

The next morning we did one more dip into the ocean. I really can't complain that this is what I walked out of my hostel door to.

Then we took our scooters over to the West Coast of the tip for some highly recommended snorkeling. I wish I'd had an underwater camera to document all the fish we saw. The only things I could really identify were: Gil & Nemo. Thus ends my tropical fish knowledge. The little cove we went to went out about 100 yards, and we swam out to nearly the edge. The water was remarkably clear and we could see about 20 feet down into choral chasms full of fish and scuba divers (whom I was uber jealous of). All the choral was bright colors and just crawling with sea life including a sea anemone where I saw Nemo. My favorite though was looking straight ahead and realizing I was surrounded by a school of what looked to me like "baby" sword fish; imagine a sword fish, and now make it about 8" long.

Here we are with our friend who came with us, right after our snorkeling. Pretty fancy gear, eh? The place we went to was called Maobitou. We essentially just rode our scooters to an estimation of where snorkeling would be, and then a sweet Taiwanese woman hooked us up with this shop who outfitted us and then transported us to the snorkeling cove.

We were starving after spending a few hours in the water, so we hit up a fresh fish market- and I mean fresh. Literally built over the water, this little hall was packed with fish and yet did not have a fishy smell at all. (Aside- Ray and I have been watching MasterChef religiously over here, which is where we learned that a fish with no fish smell is the best of the best catch and unbelievably fresh). Here's Ray enjoying his sashimi platter- raw fish served on ice, literally can I stress anymore how fresh this was? I went exotic and tried a Mambo fish dish, it was delish.

Though I didn't try it, they did offer whole, deep fried, flying fish.


Yes, I know this is just a bunch of dead fish, but I think it's beautiful. So call me morbid, if you must.

Here we are on our scooter ride back towards the main part of town after lunch. I believe my words to Ray were "I'm gonna take a picture, just keep your eyes on the road!"

Our final stop was a scenic point where natural gas flows out of the earth and is lit so it burns year round. Although signs strictly prohibit vendors and entering the 'ring of fire' people walked right in to get better pictures- and to pop popcorn like the man in pink. The other man was there "firing" eggs and selling them for $10 NT. We indulged for the experience of eating an egg that had been cooked in natural flames.

Here's our friendly popcorn man who casually approached us and offered us some of his popcorn. Then he politely posed for my picture.

Soon it was time to head home again. One final picture on our classy scooter and we were off. The sunburn lasted a week, the sand a little longer, but the memories will last a lifetime.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Happy Halloween!

Halloween was a crazy fun day at Maryland. We made a haunted house for the kids and filled the rest of the day with games, contests and of course: trick or treating! The pictures really speak for themselves on this one.

The coolest pirates in Taiwan.

Stairwell leading up to the Haunted House

...and our skeleton friend waiting for unsuspecting students in the Haunted Bathroom

We had helpers hide under here with a mask and then pop out at the very end of our scary story in the Haunted House

Behind these we had "spooky senses" the kids got to feel wet noodles, taste raw onion, and smell durian (a pungent fruit!)

Kira's bow da bomb

All our students who dressed up for the Costume Contest! From left to right: Superman, spider, vampire, shark, princess, girl covered in spiders, and ghost!