Our college applications are in sealed envelopes and ready for a hand delivery tomorrow. Somehow living in a foreign country and not speaking the language makes everything complicated. Imagine that! After an extremely complicated application process, we have completed applications for two universities in Taiwan and three scholarships. What a relief to have them complete! Applying as an international student to graduate schools makes applying for colleges in high school seem like a breeze. Both of the schools are in Hsinchu. Hsinchu has grown on us during our time here so we thought it would be nice to stay in the same city where we already know the lay of land, a few people and a nice church. We'll let y'all know the outcome in May!
College Applications are almost complete! What a complicated process and a lot of paper to submit.
Even with the college applications, we have still managed to squeeze in some trips. Imagine that one, too! The Rockwells are never finding the time to go play in Taiwan ;)
First of all, we received a lovely gift from James' grandparents, Gammy and Roger. James was more than thrilled to receive a box of Gammy's famous cookies. Many of you may remember these cookies from our wedding. Although the cookies did not last long, James did share a few crumbs. As we have mentioned before, we have a few stray dog friends around town. We are particularly fond of our dog friend that we affectionately named "Wo Chi" ("I eat" in Chinese) that watches our scooter while we run along the coast. When we arrived, Wo Chi enthusiastically greeted us as normal. James fed him a few crumbs from Gammy's Pecan Sandie cookies. The dog loved it. When we returned from our run 45 minutes later, we had a little surprise. Wo Chi told the neighborhood about the delicious cookies. Two other dogs were hanging out by the scooter with Wo Chi anxiously awaiting our arrival. I think the dogs were pretty disappointed there weren't more cookie crumbs to share. They also probably called Wo Chi a liar. We learned two important lessons that day: 1. Feed the dogs at the end of the run. 2. Everyone loves Gammy's cookies!
Gammy Cookies and other surprises!
For some crazy reason, ultramarathon man James signed up for a 54k run in Neiwan. Since the race started at 5am, we decided it would be best to stay in the night in Neiwan. Neiwan is a mountain town about a 45 minute scooter drive from Hsinchu. On Saturday, we did a small hike with a group of friends and our church pastor outside of Neiwan. We hiked to the ruins of a Japanese Fort. The Japanese controlled Taiwan between 1895 and 1945. During the hike, our pastor made a hilarious comment that I must share relating to the way time passed while living in Taiwan. I have written before about the strange slow way time passes here. Our pastor said the best way to calculate your time living in Taiwan is by doing it in dog years. I am in complete agreement!
The Japanese Fort
Enjoying some vegetarian rice dumplings wrapped in banana leaves in the sunshine by the river and swinging bridge in Neiwan. I can't imagine a nicer way to spend the afternoon.
James and I stayed the night at a Bed and Breakfast since there were no hostel options in Neiwan. The experience was very personal. The owner, a middle aged Taiwanese woman, cooked us dinner and breakfast. She even made a breakfast at 4 am for James and the other racers staying in her B&B. The place looked like I had decorated it when I was in high school. It looked like the way I decorated my bedroom. She painted the ceiling with clouds and covered the walls in butterflies, flowers and lady bugs. I loved her choices of bright colors, too! James will have to write more about the race itself. I enjoyed a nice long run on a gorgeous country road going up a mountain while James ran in his race (I had a few hours until he finished) and met James at the finish line to find him with a smile on his face. I don't know how he finishes a 5 hour race looking so happy and with so much energy, but it happens almost every race! We even made it to 1:30 pm church service in Hsinchu!
**Race Report from James**
I saw at least 50 people running barefoot. I ate probably $40 US in tomatoes at the aid stations. My race was fueled by tomatoes! The aid stations also had weird Asian cookies, bananas, tofu, and some kind of pork, maybe pork skins. Gross. The race course ran 20k up a mountain, 7k down the backside to the turn-around point, then 7k back up the mountain, to a 20k downhill descent to the finish. It was rather brutal, but a beautiful course with excellent weather. And the race was called 'King of the World Ultra Marathon'. So I guess that means I am now a King?
Ultramarathon Man James - always smiling
This past weekend we traveled to the BIG mountains of central Taiwan. Friday was a national holiday, 2/28 Peace Day. On February 28, 1947 in Taiwan, many civilians were killed due to protests and government unrest. We took advantage of the holiday and traveled with the couple from our church small group to Huan mountain. It is literally right in central Taiwan. The mountains were huge!!!!!! The area is known as the Swiss Alps of Taiwan.
We arrived mid-day on Friday. The weather was not as delightful as we had hoped but we had a few good views when the clouds occasionally parted. The area was packed with tourists for one main reason: snow. The Taiwanese are not used to seeing snow. Snow can only be found in Taiwan in the high mountains during the winter. We actually saw people filling up buckets with snow. We are assuming they were bringing them home to keep in their freezers. Also, tourists seemed to enjoy making small snowmen and putting them on their car windshields. As you can imagine, this whole scene of excitement over a small amount of snow seemed odd to our group which included James from Michigan, one friend from New York City and another friend from Ohio.
We felt so small compared to these huge mountains.
It was so cold!!!!!
Glad that's not our scooter...
We hiked up a well traveled trail up a mountain. The trail was more difficult than anticipated due to the snowy steps. The descent was dangerous but quite enjoyable. We (well, actually just James and I) were literally snowboarding down the snowy sections in our running shoes. Our shoes were soaked but I could not stop giggling. I think the other couple we were with probably wonder about our sanity and think we lead them to hikes where their lives are at risk :)
The Taiwanese LOVED the snow!
Hiking in the snow. The descent was the fun part!
All the Taiwanse loved that we were wearing shorts. Ohh, those crazy Americans!
The next morning James and I awoke early to watch the sunrise. We enjoyed a sunrise run up the mountain to the Cingjing Farm. After a delicious breakfast at the B&B (James and I are spoiling ourselves with all of the B&Bs), we went back to the Cingjing Farm with our friends. The Farm has sheep from New Zealand that graze on the land. Once again, I was amused by the pure joy of the Taiwanese seeing and petting sheep. I suppose we are spoiled in the US by having the opportunities to see snow and go to petting zoos, as well as James and I are spoiled from seeing an endless amount of sheep in New Zealand. We also enjoyed a horse show. The horses were from Mongolia. I don't know if this is a regular show or something new for the Chinese year of the horse. Nonetheless, I always enjoy seeing horses. We were even able to pet the horses after the show and take pictures.
Sunrise. The building is the Old England Bed and Breakfast. It really looks like a building from England.
The campgrounds here are quite different than in the US. Everyone pitches their tents right next to each other (often times right next to the road) and there are no camp fires.
The cherry blossoms were in bloom.
Sheep!
Wow...sunrise in the mountains is breathtaking!
I think we should send this picture into Runner's World magazine.
The rays of sunshine shining through the clouds are always a good reminder of God's beauty for me.
Look at all those sheep.
Here are a couple of pictures of the Swiss Alps I experienced in 2005 when I studied abroad in Europe. I would not personally compare Huan Mountain to the Swiss Alps, but that's just me. Each place is beautiful in its own way.
We headed home on Saturday evening. It's amazing how you'll cut a trip a short to get a car back before you are charged for another day. This makes me like the public transportation with few time constraints in Taiwan more and more! James and I did not want the vacation to end so we enjoyed the evening in downtown Hsinchu. The local glass museum set up an art display in the river canal. The combination of the lanterns and glass displays was quite nice and romantic.
Let's hope the February showers bring March flowers (rather than March monsoons)! Love y'all!
Thanks for the update and the breathtaking photos of the mountains.
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