Taipei- 台北

Last weekend we did a whirlwind 48 hour trip to Taipei. It may possibly be our favorite weekend that we have had here in Taiwan!

We went with some friends from Fengyuan and they had booked our train tickets leaving from Taichung at 7AM, which meant we had to be on a train from Changhua at about 6:30AM- it was quite an early morning, but a peaceful bike ride to the train station that early. Hooray for no traffic!

The train ride took about 3.5 hours and when we got to Taipei, we took our first MRT (Taipei Metro) ride to our hostel to drop off our bags and quickly freshen up- for we were off to the Zoo! Ray and I were worried that the zoo would be a waste of time. After all, we don't have kids oggling over the animals and begging us to go. The entrance fee was only $60NT (~$2USD) though, so we figured, what the heck! Turns out, there's something about zoo's that makes everyone turn into a little kid and have the time of their life. Who can say no to monkeys chasing each other through the trees and swinging from branches like you've only seen in Tarzan?

Also, who can say no to your first panda encounter?

I know he's small, but we were being pushed through this huge line of other people trying to take the same photo!

 Right next to the zoo, is the boarding station for the Maokong Gondola. The gondola ride takes you up the mountain surrounding Taipei and provides you with this stunning view of the city. As luck would have it, I'm still pretty much terrified of heights so the whole ride up my palms were sweating like crazy and I had to keep myself from screaming at anyone who dared to move an inch in our gondola. Call me crazy, but that one metal bar attached to a wire holding 7 Americans just doesn't give me oodles of confidence.

Fortunately my group didn't make me go in one of the glass bottom gondolas- I would have died. I also definitely would have been scrapping my return ticket and finding a bus down to the bottom!

When we finished the gondola ride, we boarded the MRT again and headed straight for Taipei 101, the second tallest building in the world. It only lost its title of the tallest in 2010 I believe, to Dubai. It really was rather breathtaking walking up to it all lit up like this. The elevator ride to the top (a.k.a the 85th floor) costs $450NT, and there was a 15 minute wait to go- so Ray and I bagged that idea and went for the "been there, seen that" point of view instead. Can't say I regret it either, I had had enough heights for one day really.
 

Following 101, we made one final stop the night market. Night markets may sound like a touristy kind of thing, but they really are part of the Taiwanese way of life. There is one nearly every night and people routinely hit them up for dinner, no special occasion needed. It's like going to the fair- a big party every time! The market in Taipei did not disappoint- only in the sense that we did not budget nearly enough time to explore all of it! We probably only got through 4 streets of the countless ones available. We did however, manage to pick up our new favorite souvenir.

We've noticed in Taiwan a lot of couples wear matching shirts... so we decided we should definitely get in on that action. When in Rome, right? So at the night market we found a fabulous T-shirt shop and managed to scoop up these babies for a steal of a deal. We're cool, you can say it.
 

Ray's says: "I love my wife" and mine says "I love my husband"

End Day 1. Followed by a wonderful nights rest- those beds were the most comfortable thing I've slept on in nearly 4 months. I seriously started planning in my brain how I could get out of the hostel with the pillow.  On Sunday we made it to the Jade Market and spent nearly two hours just enjoying "window" shopping, if you will. I discovered a new found love for coral jewelry and Ray spoiled me by buying me a pair of pink coral, rose shaped earrings. I pretty much love them, and Ray. We got some other goodies too, but I shan't be ruining any surprises here... ;-)

After the Jade Market, we went to the National Palace Museum. I had directions from another blogger on how to get there, but apparently we still looked lost enough that an MRT worker attached himself to us, provided us with English MRT maps, and handed us off to our train conductor with instructions that she was to come get us at the stop we needed. He also gave us a note in Chinese to hand to the bus driver to make sure he took us to the right place. The Taiwanese are so helpful and sweet :) And after being in Changhua for so long, we were amazed at how prevalent English was!

The palace museum was fantastic. It is full of old Chinese artifacts that were brought to Taiwan from China in order to save them from destruction during the Chinese Civil War (1948). Ray loved the history involved, and I enjoyed listening to him retell me the stories as we both admired art, jewelry and tapestries all centuries old. If you're ever in Taipei, it's something you don't want to miss.

We ended the night in probably the best way any night could ever end: MEXICAN FOOD. Oh lanta, it had been 4 months plus since we'd had a burrito, and we knew there had to be a decent place in a big city like Taipei. I did a quick Google search and discovered Macho Taco, a highly recommended Mexican restaurant conveniently located downtown. We were the only ones there when we walked in, but soon the place was busting with white people, it was almost like being in the states :) I was too excited to remember to take a picture of my steak burrito with the works and horchata before, so instead I took a picture of our mess after. Oh it was good.

After our Mexican food we headed to the train station once more, indulged in some Cold Stone ice cream (I love big cities) and made it home in Changhua a little past midnight. Phew! Then it was back to teaching 9AM the next morning.

Taipei was fantastic, we hope we get a chance to go back again because we know there is lots more we'd like to see.

History and Heights - written by Ray

I enjoy finding places that allow me to time travel, to stand in a spot, look around, and imagine that what I'm seeing is exactly what someone standing in the same spot would have seen hundreds of years ago. This post is about two such places we visited recently.

The first is our trip to Lukang. Lukang was a major port in Taiwan a long time ago before the harbor filled with silt and was closed. Then when the railway was being constructed the city refused to let the tracks come close. The city was quickly passed over by progress and became a backwater piece of the past.

This however is a blessing, the city is now a preserved part of the history of this Isla Formosa. Much like Old Town in San Diego the streets of Lukang are filled with old buildings, rustic shops, market stalls, and artisans.

It was while exploring one such street that I stepped into a dim shop, lit only by the sunlight reaching in from the old wooden door. Instead of flashy souvenirs and knickknacks, this store sold authentic tea, dried and wrapped not in plastic, but in ink marked sheathes of what I think was bamboo. There was no artificial light; I could see no electronics, steel, or plastic; and the modern sounds of the bustling world outside were muffled and distant. As I walked around I imagined that this shop could have existed exactly the same two hundred years ago, and I was no longer an American teaching English in Taiwan; but an inhabitant of old Formosa on an errand to pick up tea for my family on the way home from working at the harbor. As I stepped out the door, back into the loud colors and noise of the street it felt like I was stepping through two hundred years and returning to the life I know.

Our other favorite part of Lukang was our trip to a fan painter famous among members of the Church here. For years missionaries have been bringing him pictures of their favorite temples and he paints the temple in the traditional style onto the fan. Luckily, he had a picture of the San Diego temple and Kailin and I are now proud owners of our favorite souvenir.

All of his work is so beautiful and he was very kind and gracious. We're planning another trip to see him soon.

The Chinese says: Families are Eternal

October Tenth is a national holiday in Taiwan (Double Ten Day) and as everyone had the day off work, our branch organized a bus ride up to Alishan; a national park 2,490 meters above sea level in the beautiful mountains of Taiwan. The air was crisp and clean, the sights verdant and vast, and the hikes relaxing and rejuvenating. Tourists love to come here for the dazzling view of the sunrise and the healing qualities of the mountains mists.
 

This is called the three generation tree and is one of my favorite natural wonders. About 1500 years ago a tree fell in the forest, years passed and a new tree grew out of its trunk and in time passed away. You can see a third tree growing out of its remains at the top of the picture. I love the symbolism of this phenomenon. We saw many grandparents posing with their children and grandchildren in front of its trunk.

This is the Sacred Tree. It's one of many giant, thousand year old cypress trees growing in the park. Its diameter was something like 12.5 meters!

Looking into the forest and enjoying a bit of time travel.

Although there are many bright and colorful temples in Taiwan, this was my favorite. Perhaps the clash of color against the soft sky and green forest endeared it to me.

By the time we made it to this crystal lake a fog had engulfed the mountain, but you can still see the perfect reflection and imagine how beautiful it is in the bright sun.

The roots of these two trees grew together to create "Love Forever"

After hiking up the mountain, this historic train was waiting to take us back down the mountain, providing all the scenery without any sweating. :)

Sun Moon Lake- 日月潭

Continuing our Moon Festival weekend, we decided to head to Sun Moon Lake. The lake is about two and a half hours inland by bus from our home in Changhua. The scenery was beautiful on the ride: tea farms and wild tropical forest as far as the eye could see. Sun Moon Lake itself was fantastic! The best way to get around, is to hop on a boat which will then take you to the 3 different ports of the lake. The first stop we made is where we spent the most time. The water was a gorgeous green/blue that just fit perfectly with the trees. Up several flights of stairs was a temple- but what we were looking for was the Cien Pagoda, which stands 46m tall. Past the temple, we entered the wild forest on a deserted trail. Halfway up, we explored some small shops set up in front of another temple. Then we pushed through to get up the last and steepest part of the trail all the way to the top of the mountain and the pagoda. The effort was well worth it.

The view from the top of the pagoda out over Sun Moon Lake

The Cien Pagoda. A beautiful sight to see after nearly 40 minutes of stairs up a mountain!

 At the top of the pagoda was a large bell. We had heard it when we first arrived at the port-all the way down at the water. It never clicked in our brains though that the bell would be in the pagoda. It nearly gave us each a heart attack when about half way up the winding staircase of the tower, a little boy struck the bell with this log!










Here we are on the back of the boat heading towards our next stop on Sun Moon Lake. The Lake is home to one of the aboriginal tribes of Taiwan: the Ita Thao. Our third stop was to include a visit to the cultural village, unfortunately we ran out of time! The boat driver told us we had only 15 minutes to explore the port, so we opted to just do an impromptu hotel stay to give us more time at the lake. I'm so glad we did too! Although we still didn't get to go to the cultural village, we did get a relaxing night away from home, with lots of street shopping and exploring.

Speaking of street shops: here is our favorite display of everything "Sun Moon Lake." Apparently the Ita Thao settled at the lake after a hunting party had tracked a white deer to the beautiful valley. The lake and land was generous to the people and they stayed believing it to be a sacred place.

Our time in Sun Moon Lake had to be cut short so we could make it back to Changhua in time to spend Moon Festival with one of my student's families. It was a truly wonderful and 100% Taiwanese celebration! The family started by taking us to the Changhua National Living Art Museum, which we love (we had accidentally discovered it on our attempt to find a bike trail a while back). The museum has a large courtyard and their current exhibit is the history of bikes in Taiwan. They have all sorts of bikes from different eras for people to try. We had lots of fun doing that and playing a hoop and stick game where you have to keep the hoop spinning... my student Ray had lots of fun finding bugs to stick in my face and terrify me with. 

This hoop game is harder than it looks...

"Oh it's a leaf it might attack me!"

 They also took us on a beautiful nature walk, where the entertainment was to pick "sticky leaves" off the trees and "surreptitiously" tack them to Ray. The kids thought it was hilarious, and Ray's comical reactions kept everyone smiling and laughing.

The night ended at my student's home with several of his extended family members there. We were so touched that they were willing to open their home to us. We ate traditional Taiwanese BBQ which included: fried squid, corn on the cob, chicken, steak, a variety of vegetables, and snails. My student Ray loved the snails and must have popped out and consumed 20+ that evening. Ray and I each mustered the courage for one and called it good after that. We played some badminton, a few games of Set, watched some fireworks and gazed at the full moon.

A lovely night I'm sure we'll never forget.

Confucius say...

... don't judge us for disappearing from the blog scene too harshly. Here are our most recent diversions to appease your ceaseless hounding for more dramatic tales.

Below you will see us in front of a lovely back drop of Changhua. You can actually see our apartment building in this picture! We had decided to try out a nice bike trail that day, but we got a little lost on the way there. So we explored Baguashan Mountain for a while before eventually making it to the trail. Usually rain would ruin a bike ride, but this blessing brought in a glorious cloud cover that saved our foreigner skin and took the temperature down enough to not kill us too.

The bike trail we took meandered through a graveyard, which was eerily beautiful. The graves sprawl over the hills in a disorganized manner, but you know that each family knows exactly where their loved one is. The silence on top of the mountain was gorgeous, only punctuated by the ice-cream van quality version of Fur Elise from the garbage truck in the city far below us. I'd have to say riding through this cemetery is one of the more beautiful and enlightening things we've done in Taiwan.

Our next adventure was to make it to the Saturday Night Market on our own, with no firm directions or any guides. We hopped onto the street we knew would take us near the market, and went to town. Eight miles and some lost confusion later, we arrived; and rewarded ourselves with some high quality Night Market deliciousness. I shall call it: Explosion Changhua Corn Dog. It was love.

Then it was time to take our "Super Students" to McDonald's for some food and fun! Every two months we pick our top two students in each class for this night out that Maryland School sponsors. We play games with the kids and practice English with them until our food comes. It's good publicity for our school, and hey- we get a free American meal, I shan't say no to that!

This little treasure is Mickey, behind her is Flora. Mickey is so smart, and is one of our favorite students. Flora is in my 2A class and I just love her to pieces. She's the kind of student who walks into class, immediately informs me she wasn't able to complete her homework, and the she understands she has to use her break time to finish that homework. Then she heads to her desk to start writing in her planner. She's adorable, smart and just the sweetest student I could ask for.


At the end of September we got our first and only 3 day weekend- our school took Sept. 28 (Teacher's Day) off. We had planned a big trip to Green Island off the East coast of Taiwan. It was going to be beautiful: hot springs, snorkeling, small local population. Unfortunately a huge typhoon came through that weekend and we had to cancel the trip. Fortunately full refunds are given for typhoons! Since that weekend was also Moon Festival, we weren't too bummed since there were plenty of other things to do. For instance: here we see Ray attempting to BBQ some corn on our $3 USD grill. Our apartment complex called in a KTV (karaoke) vehicle and invited everyone out to the common area to BBQ and karaoke 'til they dropped! Because of the typhoon, it was pretty windy, hence Ray holding up the box to try and keep the wind from blowing out our coals. They also didn't have any songs in English for us to sing, but nevertheless, we thoroughly enjoyed our corn, BBQ chicken and watching several 60+ year old Taiwanese men and women stand up and belt their hearts out with varying levels of success. Good times.

The Cockroach Story

A few nights ago, Ray and I just could not fall asleep for the life of us. It was hot and muggy, and our bed is harder than what our bodies are used to, there was no helping the situation. As I lay there with my eyes closed, just trying to convince my brain to shut off, I decided there was no hope, and I opened my eyes. It was about 2AM, the lights were off, and there was just a faint glow coming in from outside. I looked to our ceiling... and saw a large black spot. I instantly began rationalizing with myself, wasn't the paper on the ceiling peeling? Could this not be just a small hole I had never noticed before? But it was no use. I knew.

I tapped Ray. "Please tell me that's a hole in the paper and not a cockroach on our ceiling?" I whimpered.

"Do you really want to know?" responded Ray after a moment of searching.

Shuddering and groaning with disgust, I wrapped myself in our sheet and bolted out of the room into the hallway. We couldn't turn on the light, because the cockroach would have beelined it to who knows where! Instead, Ray grabbed the bug spray, and a bowl, and we developed an elaborate plan.

Standing on our bed, in the dark, with bug spray in hand, Ray poised himself for a most terrifying battle. Meanwhile, I still stood pathetically out in the hallway, hardly able to even look at the black lump on the ceiling. We counted down, "3, 2, 1, now!" and Ray sprayed the varmint! It scuttled about a foot and then stopped long enough that Ray was able to snap the bowl around it, trapping him. I reentered the room to hand Ray a piece of paper so he could slide it between the bowl and the ceiling. This he slowly did. The cockroach fell into the bowl with a disgusting thud, and began running around the inside of the bowl. I will never forget that clicking, awful sound! Bleh!

I've no idea how Ray kept his composure. He reports he could feel the creature throwing itself around inside the bowl and against the paper. But somehow he managed to walk the trapped thing out of our room, down the hall, and into the stairwell where we debated what to do next. The cockroach was obviously not dead, we could see and hear him moving. We didn't want to lift the bowl up and then try to squish him as he ran. Cockroaches are much faster than you think. Drawing upon my 6 year old, spider killing knowledge, I suggested we just spray the heck out of the paper, turn the trap over, and allow the fumes of the bug spray to waft up and become trapped in the bowl with the cockroach, effectively destroying him.

So this we did. Ray moved his hand long enough for me to drench the paper in bug spray, and then he quickly flipped the trap over onto the ground. For good measure we put a heavy hiking boot on top of the bowl... you just can't trust these guys, okay?

Falling asleep was even more difficult after that- knowing what was crawling around us in our sleep! But somehow we managed to finally rest, and in the morning, the cockroach was dead. Victory! We have done what an atomic bomb could not.

Ray disposed of the body, I still couldn't bring myself to look at it. For the sake of having all the facts, the cockroach was about an inch and a half long, and I know that's not the worst that has been found in our apartment. Here's to four more months of 2AM cockroach killing sprees!

A Smattering of Photos... with Toast

I wish this post included toast. I would kill for some delicious wheat bread, full of hearty oats and seeds and natural goodness. Smothered with some jelly, or perhaps homemade marmalade. But alas, I have none. So instead, we'll just move on to some photos.

A few weekends ago, the four of us (Ray, myself, and the two other teachers we work with) decided to go up to Taichung for a short weekend getaway. There are fabulous shopping streets in Taichung, an amazing, blissfully air conditioned mall, and most importantly: Modern Toilet. Modern Toilet is a restaurant (franchises available in Changhua!) where you sit on an upcycled toilet, and the tables are sinks or bathtubs with some plexi-glass over the top. Our tub came complete with a shower head mounted to the wall! We ordered some soda, and to our delight it came served in a miniature urinal- which Ray is beautifully displaying above. We also got a shaved ice dessert, which had a menagerie of: yellow shaved ice, soft serve on a wafer cookie, raisins, small croutons, mango chunks, and multiple flavors of gelatin pieces; all served in another urinal. Our friend got some french fries in a toilet teacup, and our neighbors ordered soup which comes in a small toilet. It was quite the adventure- and it left us wondering... could we pull off one of these franchises in America?

Here is a picture of me towards the end of one of my classes with our younger kids. They had made a Mr. Potato Head and were cracking up saying it was "Teacher Ray." I of course had to send of them to get Ray and my camera so we could document this. Aren't they the cutest? Johnny isn't trying to kill Yoyo there on the left, he just... didn't want to be in the picture I guess!

We stopped here at this lovely Confucius Temple on our way to Subway and some light shopping. The buildings are always so interesting, but the roof tops are what always get my attention. The animals and detail work are always just phenomenal. I wish I had my own personal tour guide that could just tell me everything about the significance of all these designs and animal statues.

 

Here we are in Taichung again! This time we went up to visit the Jade Market, unfortunately we didn't quite make it. We were delayed by some rain in Changhua, so by the time we rode our bikes to the train station and got a train up to the city it was already about 4:30PM. We got on a bus and told the driver we were looking for some certain streets and tried to communicate the Jade Market to him. He must have understood, or was just sick of us... He informed us the market was closed and we should just get off here. So with a vague idea of where we were in the city, we hopped off and went exploring. Fortunately we find this amazing Buddha statue, and eventually we made our way back to the Chungyo Department Store, where we could easily spend days just exploring the 14 levels of the three different buildings.

We also went to the night market in Taichung, which is way bigger than the one in Changhua, with a lot more to see. Though I will say, I feel like the Changhua night market has better "authentic" foods. We were starving when we got to the market though, so we all stopped at a dumpling place. Our native friend went to order, and came back to tell us she had gotten 10 potstickers. Among 5 people, alright- two for each of us. That will at least tide us over until we see something else we want to eat among the vendors. What we got however, was a bowl of soup for each of us, and 10 flats of 10 potstickers each! Nearly 100 dumplings, which I won't lie, only 10 of which were not consumed within about 15 minutes. They were delightful. :)

This past Friday, a huge typhoon was heading for us, so we got the day off work. Luckily, the typhoon took a southern turn and we didn't even get rain on Friday! Apparently once they've called the day off though, there is no going back, so we just had a nice, relaxing, typhoon free 3 day weekend. In preparation for the typhoon though, Ray and I had gone shopping for the ingredients to make some well deserved chocolate chip cookies. Chocolate chips were nowhere to be had, so we chopped up some chocolate bars instead. You should have seen us scouring the aisles for baking soda too! We had just about given up the entire venture when I spied a small, purple bag with the words "Sodium Bicarbonate" on it. Thank you sophomore year chemistry class for helping me bake cookies in Taiwan :) It was also my first time using a toaster oven! Which is why I'm now probably craving toast...

And finally, on Saturday morning we went to the morning market. We saw lots of cool things again, and everything was a great price, but in the end we ended up just buying me a pair of stud earrings since I left all my jewelry in America during our fast pack. I will definitely have to buy more- one pair for $30 NT ($1 USD) or 4 pair for $100 NT (~$3 USD), yes please!

We ended Saturday by going on a long bike ride to explore more of our "neighborhood." It was really beautiful- and we understand now why everyone has a scooter. The roads to get to homes would simply never accommodate a car. If you don't have a bike or a scooter, you're going to be walking for a long time, my friend. The greenery when we got up close to the mountain was just wild, it really dawned on me that we are living in a tropical country (as if the humidity weren't enough of a reminder). The apartments are so diverse and the range of well-off to impoverished is blatantly obvious, all within a 3 mile radius. Taiwan is unbelievably different from America, we're so glad we are here seeing and experiencing all of this, soaking it in to save and cherish for the rest of our lives.

One final note to end our Sunday. Ray and I both have callings in Primary now. Today was Ray's first day and I think his class will be a bit trying. It's been great to be a part of primary though, we're happy we are there. 

July 25, 2012 Blogpost by Ray

I don't have a cute title for this post, Kailin's the cute one.

It's hard to believe that we've already been in Taiwan for a month. It is going by incredibly fast, pretty soon we'll be hopping on a plane to head home (wherever that is).

On to the stories:

It rains here fairly often, and when it starts I tell my students, "Oh man, I forgot my boat. Looks like I'll be swimming home tonight." Usually it's just intense rain lasting only 10-15 minutes, and if we wait it out we can avoid getting soaked. It's a good plan, except for last night, when the rain won the waiting game and we had to ride our bikes home in the deluge.

It was about halfway into the 10 minute ride home that I started feeling like I was drowning. Maybe it was the water streaming down my face from my somehow saturated poncho, or maybe it was the waves washing over us as cars passed by. More than likely however, it was a both of these things added to the weight of Kailin's purse hanging from my neck, underneath my poncho, feeling heavier and heavier.

But when we turned into the back alley leading to our apartment the deafening explosion of the rain pounding the brick and metal buildings all around us and echoing down the the narrow row was a beautiful sound. Kailin says she had never been on a bike ride like that before, but I imagine it won't be our last during our time here.

 



Today I named my first child.

In Taiwan, people who learn English have an English name in addition to their Chinese name. (Ever heard of "Jackie" Chan before?) I've asked my students how they chose their names and the ones whose parents speak English often choose a name, but if their parents don't speak English, it seems their first English teacher chooses the name. What an incredible and terrifying responsibility I thought. Choosing the name by which this person will be known for the rest of their English lives. It seemed to me too much to believe.

So when I walked into class this morning and one of the school administers introduced me to a new student and her mother, I wasn't expecting the answer to "what's her name?" to be "She doesn't have one." It was my job to give the little girl an English name right there on the spot. I would have preferred to have taken some time to get to know the family, walk them through a few name books, and maybe let the girl choose a name she felt appropriate to her personality. But I wasn't so lucky. So instead, a dozen names flashed through my head and I felt overwhelmed.

But when I looked at the child I was happy with the name that stuck in my mind. Kira. Everyone thought it was a beautiful name (and easy to spell) and the mother was very pleased. The administrator later told us that she wants to name a daughter Kira.

Kira

As I mentioned earlier we have been here a month already and I think a conversation Kailin had while Skyping her mother sums up my feelings pretty well. Her mother asked her how I was enjoying the experience and Kailin said, "We get to spend all of our time together, so I think he is happy." And that is the truth. It turns out that for me, home is wherever I'm with her.