My Randomness

Last Sunday, Dec 15th, I ran the Taipei Marathon.  I don't particularly like running road marathons but I wanted to run the biggest International race Taiwan had to offer.  I had to register for the race almost immediately after the registration opened back in the summer as it sold out in a matter of days.  Over 50,000 runners between the 9k, 21k, and 42k races.  That was A LOT of people!

I'm in there somewhere

Rachel and I arrived to Taipei on Saturday just after noon to grab lunch and go see the Cirque Du Soleil.  I had passed up a few opportunities to see the Cirque back in Atlanta and Las Vegas so when I found out they were going to be in Taipei we decided to jump on it.  It was convenient to package seeing the Cirque the same weekend as the Taipei Marathon.  It was Rachel's Christmas present to me to do these things ;-)

We had another friend from Hsinchu join us for the show.  It was pretty cool.  Lots of amazing athletes and performers doing crazy things.  Probably the best act was the finale one, where the stage turned in to a giant trampoline with a kind of rock-climbing wall at the far end.  The performers were doing crazy jumps/flips/etc than landing on the wall.  Pretty sweet!  I don't have any pictures to show as no cameras were allowed.  We followed the rules ;-)

It was raining before the show started and after it finished.  Rachel and I got dinner and went to our hostel.  The rains got harder as the evening progressed.  Rats.  It was raining in the morning and all through the race.  Rats.  Now I don't mind running for a little while in the rain, but running 3.5 hours in the rain is too much for me.  It was not the most pleasant experience I have ever had.  But, the race went well and I finished with a smile on my face.  The course was nothing to write home about, but because there were soooooooo many people I was always in a crowd.  Made it better having lots of people around all the time.  Most marathons you find yourself alone in the later miles / kilometers, running all by yourself.  Not so in a 50,000 person race.  Except for the start and first few kilometers, the crowds were never a problem.

coffee and a raincoat.  ready to go! 

Taipei 101 from the race course

coming over to give Ray a kiss! 

happy to be done.  A loooong day in the rain 

It had been raining in Hsinchu for a few days before the race, and it's been raining almost daily since.  AND IT'S COLD!!!  It is crazy how cold it gets on this so-called tropical island.  The lows are down in the 50's but the humidity makes it seem so much colder.  That, along with riding a scooter, not having a car, and not having a warm home keeps the body chilled for entire days at a time.  I can't wait for summer to come back...

I got to experience a Taiwanese dentist visit.  I went to a place that was recommended to me by the pastor at our church.  The office was extremely clean / new / modern and dentist spoke great English.  They took x-rays using some crazy new machine that did a full 360 degree around my head.  When in the dentists chair, he laid me back and began cleaning my teeth using some tool that I wasn't aware of.  It freaked me out!  I asked him about it and he explained it was an 'ultrasonic scaler'.  All dentists I have been to in US have always used a 'hand scaler'.  A scaler is the scraper thing that is used to remove plaque from the tooth.  It was interesting.

My school has decided we need to put on a performance for all the parents.  That means I get to teach songs and plays to a few of my classes.  Yippee....  Actually, I had a pretty bad attitude about it at first but I am starting to kind of like it.  In my youngest class I am teaching them a song and dance routine.  They "hop, hop, hop like a bunny" and sing the song.  In another class, they are doing a version of "The boy who cried wolf" and in a 3rd class they are doing "The Frog Princes".  I hope to have some videos to share once we do the performance.

Greg (Rachel's brother) sent me PICNIC BARS for Christmas!!!  We got a package in the mail - he just moved from the USA to Australia for work - and it was full of these Australian candy bars called Picnic Bars.  It was awesome!!!  I became rather obsessed with the Picnic Bar when Rachel and I were in New Zealand for our honeymoon.  I have been dreaming of them since we left and was pleasantly surprised to receive so many in the mail.  Thank you Greg!!!!!!!

So I finally signed up for real Chinese lessons.  A friend and I hired a tutor and we have class with her once per week for an hour.  We are not using a textbook, rather taking more of a 'survival Chinese' approach.  I have only had 3 lessons but it is already paying off.  Simple things in a restaurant, in a shop, at the market, etc are becoming MUCH easier.  I have been able to show off my Chinese abilities to Rachel a few times now and she seems pretty impressed ;-)  I have to study at least a little every day to really learn the stuff she teaches in class, but I do look forward to more classes!

Last random tidbit: We buy delicious bananas on a very regular basis and buy them in big bunches.  We didn't have a banana hanger and the bunches were so large the weight of all the bananas were causing our bananas to super bruise themselves.  So - I found us a metal hook at the everything store and voila!  We now hang our bananas in the closet.  Problem solved.  It just looks really really funny.

Will have more Christmas stuff to write about in the next post.  Until then, Merry Christmas to all!!!

Post Notification!

Dear dedicated friends, family and blog followers,

I have been informed that email notifications were not sent for our last two blog posts in December - "Taiwanese Thanksgiving" and "Super Saturday."  After doing some research on the issue and contacting blogger.com, I learned that the format has changed in December with the Feedburner.  My post size is too large to be sent through email.  Well, shoot, darn and heck! That's like asking me to talk less and be quiet around family and friends.  I'm from the South and Southern girls like to talk!  You will have to go directly to the website to see the latest posts: http://beyondrice.blogspot.com/

My only solution at this time is to break up the post into smaller sections.  Please don't be surprised when you receive multiple emails for the next post.

Thanks for reading our blog!  We love being able to "stay in touch" and share our adventure with people we love from home.  It helps to ease the pain from missing everyone so dearly, especially during the holiday season.

Love Always,

Rock and Ray

Super Saturday

We literally have a list on our refrigerator of places we want to go and things we want to do in Taiwan. Somehow the list seems to get longer rather than shorter with time.  However, last week one of our new Scottish buddies from the Hsinchu Outdoor Group contacted us about doing a hike (Caoling Historic Trail and Taoyuan Valley Trail) that just happened to be on our list.  Since she speaks and reads Chinese, we knew the plans for the trip would be better than if we planned it ourselves. 

James purchased the 6am trains tickets on Friday evening for our trip.  When we arrived to the train station at 5:50am Saturday morning, our friend was nowhere to be found.  I called her at 5:53am.  She answered the phone confused.  She had slept through her alarm and was still sleeping.  She insisted we take the train without her since the next train was not until 7:43am. After about 30 seconds she really comprehended what was happening.  She suddenly started giving me a list of instructions about how to get to trailhead, etc.  James walked to the ticket purchase counter and received a full refund for her ticket literally five minutes before the train!  We hopped on the 2 hour and 40 minute train to begin our adventure without the trusty Lonely Planet guide in hand. 

We went through Taipei and headed back south again along the east coast to Fulong Beach.  During the summer months, the beach is famous for it's sand sculptures (it is on our list...).  Check these pictures out: 

                 

When we exited the train, the weather was less than ideal.  It was overcast and drizzling.  Of course, we went to the trusty 7 11 to purchase a coffee for James, a warm soy milk for me and a poncho for James (since he forgot to bring one and these are like two-time-use ponchos anyway).  The signs were easy to follow along the road to the trailhead.  There were also a decent number of the classic Taiwanese umbrella hikers heading in the same direction.  The Taiwanese carry umberellas for all types of weather - sunny and rainy. 

Fulong Beach is also famous for a bicycle path that follows along the east coast.  There were several bicycle rental shops next to the train station. The bicycle path was added to our list on the refrigerator but for a nice weather day.

I am mentally preparing myself for this adventure.  It looks like a long trail.  

Here goes the poncho hike.  The ponchos actually work better than rain coats for hiking because they cover your backpack. They keep you warm in a humid sticky kind of way.

The beginning of the trail was in the forest. 

The trail is starting to open up...

Look at the quails crossing the path!

Maybe we should invest in an umbrella hat like this guy!

And we are on the coast!  At this point during the hike, we are just plain wet but the temperature was warmer than before. We could have taken a different path down to a small town called Dali with a train station.  However, we stuck with the original plan and continued on the main trail.   

All of our views will be similar to this for the rest of the trail.  We are walking the "hills" between the coast and the big mountains.  The PUDS (pointless ups and downs) reminded me of the Appalachian Trail in Georgia.  That was the only thing that reminded me of Georgia about this trail though. 

Let the endless staircase begin. 

The trail is known for the water buffalo that graze in the hills.  We got to see some but thankfully they were not too close. 

We continued on the trail for what seemed like eternity. The rain kept starting and stopping again.  At one point, we came to a small car park area.  The sign said there was still a 5k left of the trail plus the additional (and unknown) distance to the Daxi train station.  There happened to be a taxi parked there.  After a discussion, we decided to go try to talk to the taxi and see if we could get a ride to the train station.  Since everyone who reads this blog knows us well, you must know that we were pretty sick and tried of being wet and cold to consider not finishing a trail.  That's just not what the Rockwells do! For better or worse, the driver was not in the taxi.  We enjoyed a quick "lunch" and continued on.  Ironically for our state of minds, the trail signs for about the next mile continued to say there was a 5k left of the current trail we were on.  Why would it play tricks on us right now!

The remaining part of the hike was slow going but the food improved our attitudes as it normally does.  The stairs were slippery and there was a lot of downhill at the end.  We became true Taiwanese hikers towards the end.  Many times we see locals hiking with music playing.  I pulled out my iPhone and started rocking to the few songs I have on the phone.  

We are nearing the end of the trail!

Back to somewhat civilization.  The trail ends while you walk through someone's garden.  Nothing out of the ordinary here.  Too bad you can't pick a few things and pay someone. Farm to hungry hiker's mouth.  I think it would be a great business plan for the farmer!

You can't see this picture very clearly but we hiked the green trail (there is a yellow dot at the Fulong train station) which connects to the red trail which connects to the black trail which brings you back to the coast (and the red "You are Here" marker). The actual trail itself is 17k plus the additional distance to the train stations on both ends comes to a grand total of about 21k or 22k so about 13 miles.  Wow!

And the final time plus proof James was on the hike since he is not in any pictures once again...

I am completely whooped at the end.  Here I am attempted to buy a train ticket to Hsinchu from someone who speaks no English. Of course, I barely speak any Chinese either and I am the one who chose to live here.  

We had about an hour to wait on the local train.  After changing from wet clothes to damp clothes (note to self, put my dry change of clothes in a plastic bag or else they will get damp while hiking on a rainy day), we continued to walk in search of food in the deserted town.  We found a nice place to sit and watch some surfers at a distance but not much for food (not even a 7 11 this time).  Considering how beautiful this trail was on a not-so-nice weather day, I can't imagine how gorgeous it would be on a nice weather day.  I don't know if I can officially scratch this trail off the list on the refrigerator due to this.  

Thankfully, we had to exit the local train (which I nicknamed the snail train because it was sooo slow and stopped so frequently) at the Taipei main station.  We were pleasantly surprised to see this huge Christmas tree!!!!  As one of the other teachers said at my school, he is "having a hard time getting in the Christmas spirit".  Well, I 100% agree.  I am not complaining but the 85 degree and sunny weather on Sunday did not help me to get in the mood.  I feel like we should be on a mission to find every Christmas decoration display in Taiwan.  Anyway, this day definitely met the qualifications for a Super Saturday.  We arrived home around 8pm (after of course walking home from the train station in Hsinchu). 

We saw this fancy machine at the train station set up by the Taipei public library.  You can check out and return books.  Cool!  

So, here's the Domnio's Christmas dinner meal.  I don't even know what half of that food is supposed to be be or what in the world is on that pizza which apparently has a cheese stuffed crust.  Interesting to say the least.  

We really miss everyone especially during the holiday season! Hopefully we will be in Georgia and Michigan in spirit this Christmas :)

Taiwanese Thanksgiving

The holidays are here!  Many people have asked what we did for Thanksgiving.  Well, we celebrated the day by buying some fresh baked sweet potatoes from a street vendor to eat for breakfast.  Then, we went to work.  Today, Sunday, has been more festive.  We Skyped with my family for their delayed Thanksgiving gathering.  It was pretty incredible!  My brother in Australia and James and I in Taiwan were able to talk to and see family in Georgia!  There are some really cute little kids in my family and I loooooved seeing their sweet faces :) Our church had a Thanksgiving potluck this afternoon.  There was a great turnout and we enjoyed stuffing ourselves with non-turkey foods with good company.  

With the holidays, the colder weather we have been warned about finally graced us with its presence.  Wow...60 degrees + riding on the scooter + damp weather = COLD! I remember how cold I would get cycling during the winter but at least I was generating heat at the same time.  Now we understand why everyone says it gets cold in Hsinchu.  At least we don't have to take two showers a day anymore.  Also, I have literally been swollen from the heat for months.  As soon as the weather cooled off, all of my clothes became immediately looser/fit better.  No joke. 

Here's a blog full of fun pictures:

The postman's scooter

Hsinchu Outdoor Club group hike at Five Finger Mountain.  I still think a dinosaur is going to pop out from those ferns one of these days.  Well, on this hike a snake did slither right in front of me on the path.  The snake was a lot more scared than I was though thankfully!

This could be one of the clearest days we have seen yet in Taiwan.  The views were even more breathtaking than normal. 

A true breakfast of champions!  James and I often go run at Eighteen Peaks Park nearby in Hsinchu.  At the start of the path, there are several food vendors.  We LOVE the fresh baked sweet potatoes (of course) along with a small restaurant called Natural Seeds.  They sell vegan wraps and sandwiches so we buy two and split them.  One is in a rice tortilla stuffed with fresh sprouts, vegetables, fresh fruit, and raisins.  The other one is a wild rice wrap stuffed with a Taiwanese pumpkin squash (similar to a butternut squash), fresh peppers and cucumber slices.  Each sandwich costs a little more than $1 USD.  A very large sweet potato costs about $1 USD, too.  Amazing...

The Natural Seeds restaurant is run by a mother and son.  The mother makes fresh baked banana cakes.  She gave us a sample and her business card a while ago.  James and I decided to order a couple of these fresh baked cakes (although it's more of a bread because it is not too sweet and has fresh hunks of banana and walnuts) to share with our schools for Thanksgiving.  You may ask how much these homemade, fresh cakes cost which include these fun boxes? $6.67 USD/cake. 

 James and I returned to the Five Fingers trail yesterday (on our own, without the hiking club) to check out a few additional side trails.  We found this very well maintained "monkey" trail.  We saw one monkey yesterday but actually not while on this trail.  It was another lovely day in the woods!

This was as tight as a squeeze as the picture makes it appear.  I do not think a large man could fit through here. I was a bit freaked out by this but made it up safe and sound.  

The "woods" here are so cool!  Just look at how small I look in this magnificent jungle of green!

The monkey statues led us along the trail. 

The trail ended at a temple (no surprise here).  The stairs were fun to walk up on this temple.  Oddly, there were exactly 100 stairs.  We don't know if this signifies anything. 

A cool picture at the fountain and fish pond next to the temple. 

I like this "selfie" picture from the top of the temple.  We look really happy. Ohh..by the way...the pigtail braids are back!

Lots of banana trees on the trail but unfortunately no ready-to-eat bananas. 

The 10 NT store next to our apartment (like our Dollar Tree store at home) decorated for Christmas.  Only 4% of Taiwan follows the Christian faith so I'm not sure who is going to buy all this stuff. 

That's a pretty awkward Santa.  He looks kind of like a scarecrow Santa to me. 

So, what fruit's in season for the winter in Taiwan?  Oranges!  I did not have an interest in trying the oranges at first because as you can tell in the picture above, the oranges are green and orange.  This just seemed to wrong to me.  Shouldn't they be a bright orange?  Just as all the other fruit here, the oranges are incredible.  They are comparable to a large juicy flavorful clementine.  They are easy to peel with very few seeds.  I found this cute picture online to show what the oranges look like.  

These tasty wax apples are in season, too.  They are like a crisp and super juicy apple with no seed or core in the middle.  Mmm....

That's about it for now.  Happy Thanksgiving!  We are thankful for all of our wonderful family and friends.  We miss y'all dearly. We are not thankful that UGA beat GA Tech this year though.