Until Next Time, Taiwan

Currently, we are sitting at the Taipei International Airport, awaiting our 3PM flight to Shanghai. From there we will transfer planes and at 11:55PM tonight, we will be off to Frankfurt, Germany! Do you know what that means?

Ray and I have officially flown around the world together.

Just a fun thought I had : )

The last week in Taiwan has been so much fun and a bit unsettling too. Ray put it best when he said: "It makes me happy that I'm sad to be leaving Taiwan. It means I did something right." While we're so excited to see family (and have second Christmas!) leaving a place you called home is never easy.

As we've prepared, we have shared with each other the things we'll miss about Taiwan. Now we share them with you.

1. Our students- there couldn't be a cuter bunch of kids anywhere (except for our nieces and nephews who will only ever be trumped by our own children. We're planning on raising super model, Olympic swimmers, you know).

2. Select Food Items- Things like: fried curry dumplings, banana milk, fresh mango smoothies, rice triangles, and dongua cha are just a few of our favorites that are unique to Taiwan. With some luck, maybe we'll find fried curry dumplings in the states somewhere. We managed to find a brick of dongua cha (a fruit tea~ in English either Wax Gourd, or Wintermelon) so we're excited to try that out soon!

3. Flora and Fauna- Living in a tropical climate has been unbelievably rewarding in terms of the foliage. You can't go anywhere without being floored by the amount of greenery, the size of the greenery, and the vast varieties of it too!

4. People We've Met & Friends We've Made- Taiwan has some of the sweetest people in the world, they've been kind and helpful to us and even with a language barrier sometimes, we've made some lasting memories. Through church too we've met great people and created friendships that we look forward to tending for years to come.

5. Night Markets- Although Ray may beg to differ, they were one of the coolest things Taiwan had to offer. I never got tired of perusing the streets and checking out all the fun and quirky things for sale. 


Inevitably, we also developed a list of things we probably won't be yearning for any time soon...

1. BUGS- From cockroaches, to mosquitoes and biting midges, the bugs have been overwhelming and a rather unwelcome part of Taiwan. Of course as the weather cooled, things got better. The cockroaches especially though were a never ending battle we're happy to see the end of.

2. Humidity- In the summer you melt from it, in the winter you freeze from it. Who knew you could be shivering and shaking when it's only 62 degrees out! That's apparently what a wet cold will do to you though. We made it through alive, but humidity is something we could deal with less of in our lives. : )

3. Traffic- I don't think you ever quite fully adjust to being on a bike with 20 scooters around you, trying to get through an intersection with no stop lights or signs, and a tour bus eeking between you and oncoming traffic.

4. Smells- It scares us how accustomed to the smells of Taiwan we have become. When we first got here they were almost unbearable, now they're tolerable and sometimes even nice. Have we destroyed our noses forever?! Will we ever smell things the same?! We got some solace when we finally tried stinky tofu last week. Although we made it through the smell, it still did not taste good. Phew! We haven't lost all our senses yet!

 

"Stinky Tofu" by Ray
It tastes like eating a deep fried scab.

Ray ends now with some more reflective and mature writing.

It was a few weeks ago while walking to the store at night that I realized: I've grown accustom to this place. I've grown accustom to the old buildings, the abundant green foliage covering the mountains and popping out wherever it it can, the bright neon signs that line storefronts on the roadsides. I've grown accustom to the sound of hundreds of scooters bustling through the streets, the sound of people speaking in a kind of melodic warble all around us and not understanding what they're saying, the sound of children's laughter, and yelling and giggling. I've grown accustom to the smiles of helpful strangers and the "Hellow!"s of passersby; accustom to the feeling of being a foreigner at home in a foreign land, surrounding by everything I don't understand but feeling comfortable nonetheless. And this realization made me wonder; have I grown to love Taiwan? Do I love this place with all of its smells and foods and quarks and confusion? I know I'll miss it and that I'll look back at my time here fondly and often. Yes, Taiwan has truly "touched my heart."

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.

One Week in Taiwan

We have made it to Taiwan! What a week it has been. Here are the highlights from our first few days...

Saturday, June 23
We made it to SLC airport and boarded our plane to Portland, OR, where we met up
with the other girl in our teaching group. After a quick layover, it was back onto a plane for
an eleven hour flight to Narita-Tokyo, Japan. Roughly 3 and a half movies, and some quick naps later, we
landed in Tokyo exhausted. We also wished each other happy first anniversary! Since we crossed the
International Date Line, we missed most of the 24th, so we really only had about 6 hours to
celebrate. Bummer, but that just means we get to celebrate another weekend to make up for it :)

Sunday, June 24

Happy First Anniversary! We flew from Tokyo to Taipei and after making it through customs,
entered the large airport lobby and looked for someone holding a sign with our names on it.
After an hour and a half of waiting, no one was there still. We called our school director and she
quickly arranged for another driver to pick us up. *Phew* Two hour bus ride and we finally got to our apartment in Changhua, Taiwan! Sleep beckoned, and we crashed around 2AM. 

Monday, June 25

Our first day at the school. We observed classes and listened to endless instruction about which classes we would be teaching, when they were held, what books we should use. Information overload combined with a jetlagged brain, meant we weren't too useful this day. The kids were great though and we realized teaching in Taiwan would be very different from Russia. The kids actually like English class here, and maybe the ones in Russia did too... Alright, the real difference is the culture- the parents just expect more of their kids here!

Tuesday, June 26

Observed more classes, got more instruction on how to teach. We felt much better today with some more sleep on our side. However we were still (and are actually) melting from the humidity. We went to
a local grocery store this evening which was nice and air conditioned inside, and when we walked back outside, Ray's glasses literally fogged up. It's like stepping out of the shower into your bathroom when you

forgot to turn the fan on or leave the door open. You are wet, all the time, everywhere. It's going to take a lot more getting used to!

Wednesday, June 27

The previous married couple teaching at the school flew back to America this day, so Wednesday was our first day of teaching. Both SPE's (little kids) and Elementary levels. It was so fun, and we both felt very satisfied with how our days had gone when we sat down at the end of the day. The other teachers still with us from the first semester showed us around our neighborhood and took us to "Food Street" where they began introducing us to all the delicious and... interesting things... one can get there. So far our favorites are: fresh mango smoothie and a seafood/rice gratin with pumpkin sauce. 

Thursday, June 28

Ok, this is Ray, it's my turn to tell a story. Thursday started out like a normal day, as normal, that is, as any day when its only your fourth in a foreign country. Kailin and I woke up, got ready and left for school. She wanted to lead the way on the bikes and as we approached the main road in front of our apartments we had the green light. She checked the light, checked both ways and started to turn left. Out of nowhere a scooter came barreling down the road. Just as she was thinking, "it's ok, I have the right of way" the scooter turned left and drove straight into her. "Kailin!" I cried out as she bounced of the front of the scooter and fell over. She quickly stood up and said she was ok, some people stopped and she reassured them she was fine and everyone rode off. Kailin and I walked to the side of the road, The handlebars on her bike were bent, she had a scratch on her knee, and her pinkie finger was scratched, swollen and bruised. She was more embarrassed than anything. Our school director Sherry reminded us that this is Taiwan, and for busy Taiwanese workers, red lights are more of a suggestion. Also, I got a haircut.

Ew, gross. I had to take off my wedding ring too because that finger was swelling.

Friday, June 29

For only 3 days of actual teaching we were more tired than we probably had a right to be, but we're going to keep blaming jetlag for that. We ventured out to Food Street and ate some more delicious rice gratin, then walked home in a steady drizzle of the warmest rain I've ever experienced in my life. Since we were already soaking wet from our own sweat (TMI?) the rain hardly even phased us. 

Saturday, June 30

Today we were able to finally sleep in (woot!) which felt awesome. Then we rode our bikes (myself much more cautious and maybe too obsessed this time) to the Morning Market. Talk about sensory overload! In a small alley, there are crammed stores with fish, jewelry, clothing, handbags, dishes, bed sets, shoes, shoes, more shoes, plus the frequent fruit stand. Darting between the shops and stands are hundreds of people, scooters (which I'm still not sure I will ever be okay with) and even a van or two! Apparently, no space is too small to try and cram your vehicle through. We found tons of exciting souvenir prospects, but since we are here for 6 months we kept our monies saved. We did however go see a movie! Snow White and the Huntsman, which was thankfully in English and only cost about $6- totally worth sitting in a dark, air conditioned room for a couple hours. Then more biking to Shopping Street; more shoes clothes and bags, and finally home again, home again, jiggidy-jig.

Le Shopping Street- I just noticed these girls are in long sleeves... No idea how they aren't dead.

Two loads of laundry later and our first week in Taiwan is complete!