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!!!