March - The lion & the lamb

March began like a lion. Taiwan's monsoon season happens to land in March.  It rained, rained and then rained some more.  In fact, it rained so much that we broke down and made a couple of wet weather worthy purchases. I bought a pair of galoshes to use on my walking commute to school and for the scooter.  I am happy to have dry feet!  We also purchased a dehumidifier.  Our apartment was literally molding from the humidity and our towels would not dry. Have you ever wiped mold off of walls with a paper towel and cleaner?  Now, we can say that we have.  The buildings in Taiwan have concrete frames rather than wood frames simply for this reason.  Fortunately, the monsoons have stopped and the sun is shining once again!  James and I also purchased a book called "Taipei Escapes." The book is written by an expat.  He gives great directions for one day hikes near Taipei.  We have already enjoyed three of the hikes in the last two weekends.  Another excellent purchase choice!

On a particularly wet Saturday in early March, we attended James' school's English show.  Each class did a song, dance, or play.  James can vouch about the huge amount of work that went into this show.  His students did awesome on the stage! Good job Teacha James! My school's show is this Saturday. 

James with his students.  They performed "Hop like a Bunny." 

Last weekend we used the book to hike in the Danshui area.  Danshui is coastal area in the northwestern part of Taipei.  We visited the area with my friend Michelle.  We did an excellent and tiring hike to the peak of Mount Jhan.  I personally found the most enjoyable part of the hike to be lunch.  As the book told us, a temple along the hike on the side of the mountain provides a by-donation vegan lunch on the weekends and holidays.  It was delicious and fueled us for the remainder of the hike.  We were so happy that we forgot to take a picture of lunch :)

Looking out towards Danshui from Mount Jhan

This hike included some of the ridiculous vertical rock climbs with ropes.  I believe I have gotten much better and more comfortable with these "scrambles."  However, please note the lady behind me in blue would have passed me if it was possible.  We chatted with her and her husband in broken English/Chinese after the climb.  I think her and her husband are in their 60's.  I am humbled by the Taiwanese hikers!!!!!

A waterfall in a temple cave

The following day, James and I joined a group from Taipei to do a run at the Shimen Reservoir.  Part of the run included this strange abandoned amusement park.  We were able to walk through the castle.  Weird!

This past weekend, we headed back to Taipei to check off another hike from the book's list.  Now, it is a goal to do all of these hikes! Our Saturday hike started off of a train stop on the northeastern side of Taipei not far from the coast.  'Taiwan is always full of surprises' as James and I frequently say.  The stop is known for the enormous amount of stray cats that hang out around the train station.  I suppose the Taiwanese found this "cute" and decorated the whole train station in a cat theme.  

That's a cat on top of the giant floating cat head!

The cats are everywhere!

The hike is titled the Golden Character Tablet.  This ancient tablet is carved into the rock.  The design around the Chinese writing is quite intricate.  Oddly, these people were painting the Chinese characters white.  They did not act suspicious as we walked by and snapped a few photos.  However, James and I found this a bit strange...

View from the top!

We passed by this cave on a route to a waterfall.  James kept insisting he saw a pair of eyes staring at us from inside the cave.  I thought he was trying to scare me (which worked since I carried a rock with me for the next ten minutes just in case of an attack), but he keeps insisting he was telling the truth. 

The hike also included the ruins of a coal mining town.  We felt like we were in Cambodia looking at ruins!  This area of Taiwan became very popular for a short period of time for coal mining.  A few small towns popped up.  They were quickly abandoned after the coal mining rush ended.  The trail we hiked is the same trail the miners used to walk to and from the mines.  It was the ancient I-75!

A good view of the coast from the second peak on the hike!

We ate dinner at an incredible vegetarian restaurant in Taipei next to the Longshan Temple! James found a review for the restaurant by an expat on facebook. The reviewer recommended the pumpkin soup as well as a few other dishes.  The Taiwanese call the Japanese kabocha squash "pumpkin."  It's a delicious squash that I highly recommend everyone to try.  This soup was phenomenal!!!  We will definitely be going back here.  

The restaurant is located near a famous night market in Taipei.  The night market is famous for it's unique (and absolutely disgusting in my personal opinion) "foods." You can eat snake and turtle AND drink snake blood.  Ugh!!!!!  We walked around the market and saw a few weird things.  All of the weird vendors have signs posted for no photography.  We followed directions.  Whenever something is worthy enough to post in English as well as Chinese, it's serious!

On Sunday, we had an important goal to accomplish.  We wanted to visit Chinese Culture University's campus.  Although we already submitted our college applications to two schools in Hsinchu, I felt remorse about not applying to colleges elsewhere.  Of course, our original plan was to apply to a handful of colleges until we realized how complicated and expensive the application process was.  We discovered the application deadline for CCU is April 15th and we have "leftovers" of the correct documents to apply!  CCU is just north of Taipei.  The campus is actually located within the boundaries of Yangmingshan National Park.  If we attended school here, we could officially say that we live in a national park.  Sunday was a lovely, sunshiny day, which of course makes one like a place more than on a rainy or cold day.  

Well, the college's campus is in an amazing location.  The views from the campus are incredible!  The campus is located less than a 30 minute walk from the main entrance to the national park.  In addition, the campus is surrounded by a never-ending amount of trails.  James and I would not have to go far for our weekend explorations! While we fell head over heels in love with the location, we were not in love with the campus itself.  All of the buildings are quite old.  We were able to explore the gym and dining area.  Not that anything was bad or disgusting, but we know that the facilities and buildings at the two campuses in Hsinchu are quite new and nice.  We have used the colleges' gyms and dining halls on several occasions.  There are always pros and cons to everything!  We haven't been accepted anywhere or received any scholarships yet, so I am jumping way ahead of myself here :)  We will find out about all applications by the end of May.  

After our visit to the campus, we enjoyed a nice shorter hike just a short stroll from the campus.  Spring is awesome!

A cool picture of the Catholic Church located right outside of campus.  

We had heard the horror stories about the huntsman spider.  We had only seen the spiders outdoors in the past.  Well, our apartment complex had a lovely visitor on first floor.  These spiders can move fast!  Here's a picture of our little friend.  By the way, these spiders are not poisonous and rarely bite humans.  The larger huntsman spiders eat small birds instead!  Gross!

James and I are especially fond of our furry friend who lives by the coastal bike/running path, Wo Chi. This is the same dog James fed the crumbs of Gammy's cookies.  We think he wants to learn English.  James bought Wo Chi some "irrestible" dog treats, as the package reads.  Wo Chi politely rejected them!  I suppose wild dogs don't care for "human dog food."  The next time we went to the coast, we brought him peanut butter crackers.  James managed to teach Wo Chi to sit with just one pack of crackers!  He takes after his dad, the great dog trainer!  

We enjoyed our first watermelon of the season (yellow variety)!  We are looking forward to the tropical fruits coming back into season (aka mango and papaya)! 

Speaking of spring, one of our favorite parks to go for a run in Hsinchu is famous for its flower festival in March.  The park is named Eighteen Peaks.  It is named appropriately as the park is very hilly. 

Pumpkins

2014 - The year of the horse (this horse looks a bit crazy in my opinion)

Flower Clock

Butterfly

Glass chickens (I am assuming these were made at the famous... or not so famous... Hsinchu Glass Museum)

Extra large fruit

Fish and flowers

Happy Spring!!!! March is going out like a lamb in Taiwan this year.