Professional Pea Holder

You heard me. And that is exactly what Ray is: a professional pea holder. Okay, maybe the real title is professional chopsticker, chopstick user, chopstickite? Who knows? But our roommate told us if you could hold three stacked peas in your chopsticks you were professional.

Ray promptly succeeded. I'm... still workin' on it.

We had a very busy week full of adventures where we finally began branching out of our routine. For starters, we tried a new restaurant: Mos Burgers. We were already dying for some American type food, and everyone had been raving about this place. So armed with some general area directions, we took off on our bikes after school one night and eventually found this beauty:

The burger that is. Thanks though ;)

Also this week, our new friends from church took us out to dinner and showed us around the University that is a couple blocks from our apartment complex. The next day they took us to the top of the mountain, Pakuashan, where the largest Buddha statue in Taiwan sits. It was nice and breezy up there, which felt fantastic, and also meant we had views all the way to Taichung. This according to my students is a rare day indeed.

"Praaaaaissse to Buddha!" (insert musical notes here) - Name that movie! And no, it is not Mulan.

The statue was way cool, and the temple behind it was gorgeous. But perhaps the most exciting part was discovering the gigantic koi pond behind the temple full of enormous koi fish. We spent a good 15-20 minutes just ogling at the size of these guys and the beauty of the pond.

We took this from the second floor of the temple looking down. My dad built a koi pond in every house I ever lived in growing up. They were always beautiful, but it wasn't until this moment that I realized what a koi pond could really become.

Seriously, look at the size of these things! We even saw one jump clean out of the water- no less than two feet in the air, I swear.

I lied, perhaps the most exciting part was Ray's new found toy in the temple:

Apparently the higher you lift this weapon, the more blessings you will receive. Neither of us could lift it off the ground even a quarter of an inch... "That's it! Dishonor! Dishonor on your whole family!" Okay, yes, this time it is Mulan.

After a rest from walking around the grounds for a few hours, our friends then took us to Changhua's Night Market. Again, a menagerie of crowded stores and stalls, overflowing with foods, drinks and clothes. This time though there was also an assault on our noses by none other than... Stinky Tofu. We had heard so much about it, but nothing could have prepared us for the at first subtle, then slowly thickening grotesque smell. I'll be completely honest with you, we can't compare the smell to anything else other than sewage. Ray thought some child had messed his pants when we caught our first whiff. Maybe after a few months we'll be brave enough to try it. For now though, our eyes still water when we just think of the smell. That goal is going to take some mental stamina and gag reflex training. Instead, we settled for some delicious, fresh coconut milk, Taiwanese BBQ chicken (amazing!) and the best fried squid we have ever tasted.