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. 

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.