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.

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.