Weekend in Taipei

Last weekend was good.  We met up with my friend from college who is in town from Malaysia.  We had originally planned to have a crazy busy weekend, going down to Taroko Gorge early Saturday morning through Sunday evening.  It required Rachel and I to get on a train leaving Hsinchu at 4:30am Saturday morning.  Well, my buddy had been mountain climbing with his girlfriend on Thursday / Friday and arrived back to Taipei at 8pm Friday night.  We spoke on the phone and jointly decided to cancel our crazy plans for Saturday and Sunday.  He had been up since 1am summiting a mountain and Rachel and I felt whooped from another week of emotionally draining children.  So we decided to just meet up in Taipei around noon on Saturday and go for a chill hike in the tea country on the south side.  I think that was the best decision.

We met in Taipei Main Station and took the MRT down to Maokong.  Rachel and I went here back during our training week in Taipei and were able to ride the gondola but not able to do any of the hikes.  So it was nice to get back here again.  When we all arrived to Maokong, we were informed the gondola was closed due to potential bad weather headed our way.  Rats.  Luckily there was a bus that took us to the top where all the tea houses and trails were, so we were still able to get where we wanted to go.  We identified one hike in particular that went back to a waterfall and a temple.  At the trailhead, there was a stray dog that was just lying in the trail.  As soon as we passed her, she got up and came with us.  She stayed with us for the next 2-3 hours of the hike - pretty cool.  I think she was just waiting for someone to go down the trail with.  We named here Wonton.  Won for short.  She actually showed us the way a few times.  There were 6 or so intersections where we had to decide which direction to take.  She knew the way well.  

Wonton

the crew 

We arrived at the waterfall and it was pretty nice.  The water was not super-flowing, but the temple was built in to the rock behind the waterfall.  You could walk up the stairs in to the temple and look out from behind the waterfall.  Pretty cool!

walking up to the backside of the fall 

Wonton worshiping 

behind the falls 

view from the temple

After we finished our loop and got back to the main tea house area, we walked around for a bit and grabbed a few snacks.  By this time any potential bad weather had passed through so the gondola was back up and running.  Perfect timing for us!  We were even lucky enough to get one of the 'glass bottom' gondolas (the line wasn't too long) and rode down the mountain during the sunset.

me.  falling.

it was pretty wild looking down

We grabbed some dinner with our friends then said our goodbyes because Rachel and I were heading back to Hsinchu.  We had to walk by the train station to get to the bus station so we ducked in to use the restroom.  Crazy enough, we run in to a man and his son who we had met a few months prior during a visit to Taipei.  Now Taipei is not a small place.  With a metro population of 7 million people, the odds of Rachel and I seeing one of the very few people we actually know are rather slim.  So pretty wild to run in to someone.  Even CRAZIER is that, when we got to the bus station, we ran in to ANOTHER person we know that is from Hsinchu.  She was in Taipei for the day and was taking a bus back to Hsinchu.  EVEN CRAZIER is that a man we met in Chinese class was ON OUR BUS going back to Hsinchu.  What the heck is going on?!?!?!?  We know like 6 people in all of Taiwan and have just seen 4 of them in Taipei.  Ha!  I don't quite know how to interpret that situation, looking for the meaning in it, but it makes for a good story anyways.  **

Sunday was packed full per usual.  We got up and hit the ground running, doing chores, errands, etc before we rode the scooter out to a trail we hiked a few weeks back.  It was the Five Finger Mountain trail (you may remember the 'finger' pictures) and we decided to speed hike / run as much as we could to make for a good workout.  We completed the trail in 1:59 so now have a time standard to try and beat next time.  When we finished there were some cute puppies in the parking lot.  They were difficult to film because they move so fast - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUG-6ZQH7dA&feature=youtu.be  On the ride back home we stopped off at some cold springs to cool and rinse off.  A nice finish to our sweat-fest trail run ;-)  We made it back home just in time to de-funk and re-rag before 5:00 church.  Another action packed weekend in Taiwan is in the books!

Now...back to work for the week.  My birthday is this coming Saturday when I will be turning 32 years old.  And I get to work for my birthday!!!  Frown.  I have to give a demonstration lesson to prospective students / parents on Saturday morning.  But I am sure Rachel and I will find a way to pack every moment of the rest of the weekend full with some kind of adventure.  Will write more soon!

** Rachel's editing note: So, on Monday we were going for a run and our buddy from New Zealand drove by on a scooter and stopped to talk to us.  Make that #4 for seeing the few people we know.  Then, we ate lunch with him at our college dining hall spot and we ran into the Polish family from our church that introduced us to the dining hall.  That makes #5.  My mom always said I have a talent for running into people I know.  I did not think this was going to prove true in a country where I barely know anyone!!!!!!

gettin in the grooooooove

This week has been....just fine!  I think this has been the first week that was just normal.  So I guess that means we are finally getting in the groove of living & working in Taiwan?

It is Friday morning and I have few minutes before getting lunch and heading to work so I figured I would write something.  It seems I always think about writing a blog, then Rachel writes one, so I decide to wait till the next time to write, then Rachel writes one, then I decide to wait till the next time to write, then Rachel writes one....  You get the point.  I am not as good a blogger as my wife ;-)

I am getting much more comfortable at work.  It has been a wild beginning for me with LOTS of hours and no other teachers to look to for direction, etc.  Every class felt like an experiment with me trying to figure out what works and what doesn't.  It still kind of feels that way, but now I have at least a few things that I know work well and can always fall back on.  All my classes are pretty good - except one.  I have one class that is always crazy.  It is my largest class, 17 students, and they are all 7-8 years old.  It is also my longest class.  2 hours, 4 days per week.  Luckily it is my first class of the day so I look forward to getting through that class and having an 'easier' rest of the day.  They can just get so crazy!  And their attention spans are much shorter than the rest of my classes.  I think it has to do with the size of the class.  Lots of distractions for all the students.  I need to be the most prepared for this class because if I don't have a plan of what to do, they go bonkers.  And I don't want to turn in to the Angry Teacher from Taiwan picture Rachel posted the other week :-)  I do have to put on my calm costume for this class though...

Not a whole lot else to report other than its hot.  I seem to be dealing with the heat pretty well though, I just can't run as fast or as hard when doing any speed workouts.  Oh - and I just discovered a small 'group' on Facebook that get together for some longer runs / trail runs around the Taipei area and will be joining one weekend soon.  Pretty excited about that.

A few random things:

Rachel and I went to 7-11 to buy some drinks after a weekday trail run (love my weekday trail runs!) and when checking out the clerk indicated for me to put my hand in a box and draw a number.  Kinda weird, but it is some promotion with Angry Birds and I saved 25% off our drinks.  Draw a number from the box.  It seemed really cheesy, reminded me of a Family Guy episode.  "You can take the boat, or the mystery prize in the box" (for the Family Guy fans out there).  And did you know in Taiwan there are more 7-11 stores per square km than anywhere else in the world?  

We save all of our receipts here.  Everybody does.  There is a 'receipt lottery' sponsored by the government.  Every two months, numbers are drawn and you have the chance to win anywhere from $200NT - $10,000,000NT.  A good motivation to hold on to those receipts.  It apparently was started to promote 'above the table' transactions by businesses.  Patrons will want their receipts so businesses must provide them.  All so the gov't gets their taxes.  Makes sense.  http://www.tealit.com/article_categories.php?section=living&article=lottery  And if anybody was wondering, we didn't win last month.

My school is very new, just two years old.  Why we only have a squatter toilet in the bathroom is beyond me.  Most places we have been (unless it is out in the country somewhere) have normal sit down toilets.  And if you don't know what I am talking about, here it is:

I paid $100NT for a haircut the other week.  That is $3.33 USD - I thought Great Clips was cheap!  My hair was much shorter than I have ever got it cut before, but it grows back.  I am happy to find cheap hair cut places.  

That's all for now.  Heading up to Taipei to meet a friend from college who is in town for a few days.  He has been working on a project in Malaysia and has been wanting to come hike some Taiwanese Mountains.  Till next time!

A big golden Buddha and a walk in the woods

Spending our weekends in the Hsinchu area is typically quite enjoyable (unless there is a typhoon) and we always find new things to do and see just a scooter ride away.

We enjoyed a leisurely Saturday morning.  I felt like a teenager because we slept until 9:30 am.  That means the sun has been up in Taiwan for about four and a half hours.  Here's our morning fruit fest!

We left the apartment around lunch time and headed to visit the large golden Buddha statue.  We saw it from the peak of a mountain we hiked recently.  The ride to the place was gorgeous.  We drove through rice fields.  The rice is perfectly planted!  James said it reminded him of the movie "Last Samurai" with Tom Cruise. We arrived at the golden Buddha and found the gates were closed during the lunch hours to enter the large "temple." Luckily, a vegetarian restaurant, Joyful House, associated with the place was open.  The meal was by donation there.  We enjoyed a big bowl of noodles, veggies and tofu that looked like meat (but fortunately did not taste like it, too).

Rice fields

I spy a Buddha!

These rules from the restaurant are going on our front door: Non-vegetarian food, smoking, alcohol, and pets are strictly prohibited  :) ....well cute dogs are permitted for a short stay (Clifford & Layla)

We took the "Nature Loving Wonderland" walk around the lake as we waited for the gates to open.  The name fit the lovely walk. 

When we entered the gate, the greeter gave us a long list of rules.  We were not allowed to wear our sleeveless shirts.  Fortunately, we had our long sleeved shirts to prevent sunburning while on the scooter with us.  I was also required to wear this wrap they gave me so my knees would be covered.  I saw a few other women with these lovely "skirts" on, too.  I am dressed like a yellow Big Bird!!

We entered through the arch on the far right - the arch of joyfulness we were later told

These clocks (and matching wrist watches) are promoted within this group.  Each number is associated with a "good attitude" such as cheerful, amicable, faithful, etc. 

Meeting our English tour guide, James

James in front of the Buddha. The Buddha is almost the same height as the Statue of Liberty. 

As we were walking to the main temple and taking pictures of the many Buddha statues, our surprise English tour guide, James, met me with an UV protection umbrella.  He is not the normal English tour guide as his English is only "simple" he said.  He took us to the large building you can see in the pictures.  We were required to put footies over the bottoms of our shoes to protect the floor in the building.  The building and statue were completed in 2011.  They are welcoming of all religions.  James was an engineer for the project and now he volunteers and lives full-time on the grounds.  I think he might be training to be a monk but he never said that in English I could understand.  We were not allowed to take pictures inside.  We saw many, many, many Buddha statues. The values are incredible and very true that are practiced by this religion.  I say "this religion" because by the end of the tour we were confused exactly what religion this group actually is.  We think it is a mix of Buddhism and Taoism but there seems to be an extra emphasis on loving nature. From what we understood, the principles are great to live by! They addressed the religion as "The Universal Family." Also, the tour included a world map with locations. There were maybe thirty-ish locations around the world.  The US location is in LA. Here is the website but it does not explain much: www.naturelovingwonderland.org

Anyway, we saw a ton of Buddhas and learned the values of being cheerful, putting people before money, loving nature by eating vegetarian, etc.  We thought the tour was almost over...  We entered the building with the big golden Buddha so we could walk around the top.  Well, instead we were given a tour of the first floor of the building with more Buddhas.  Then, after going to the top, Tour Guide James asked if we wanted to watch a Chinese movie about the place.  We said no but somehow we ended up watching the movie anyways.  I guess he did not understand our English. After two and 1/2 hours, we left the grounds!  We felt like we were there for six hours for some reason.  Apparently, the normal English tour is one hour but we received the VIP tour instead :)  Overall, I would recommend the place for a visit as the big golden Buddha is quite impressive!  Ohh, as James was explaining the clock to us, the hands happened to be pointing at "Casual Elegance" and "Actualized."  He asked us if we were feeling that way currently.  My James and I looked at each other and told tour guide James, " I am not really sure."  We discussed later that "Causal Elegance" sounds like a dress code at a fancy event.  I suppose these are an awkward Chinese to English translation?

JUST in case you are interested in purchasing a watch :)  http://www.dmg-brighttime.com

On Sunday we headed to Neiwan with our hiking buddy.  Neiwan is a small town in the mountains about a one hour scooter ride east of Hsinchu. 

The bridge over the river in Neiwan.  People swim and fish in the river in this area. You can rent boogie boards and floats!

Old Street Neiwan - Lots of food and drink vendors (and stinky tofu smells...yuck)

We continued into the mountains after a short stop for food on the old street and drove up a wild mountain road to get to the trail head.  The hike was pretty wild!  We hiked for four and a half hours!  The hike highlights included climbing wooden ladders, using ropes to climb up the steep areas to the peak (my arms were sore on Monday), a waterfall, VERY large cypress trees, and meeting a hiking group of retirees.  The retirees hike every few weeks in different places.  They carry a very large amount of food with them and cook lunch on the trail.  They offered us a full lunch that had cooked.  Seriously, they carried a massive pot to make a soup, lots of water, tea pots, and other such things. What?!  We wanted to make it to the peak, so we continued on our way after a short conversation.  The whole hike was extremely humid and muggy.  I think all the moisture in the air made the pictures blurry (that were taken with my handy iPhone 4). We had a rough climb to the peak since we took the trail less traveled (and did not know what we were about to get ourselves into).  Some of the sections of the climb required full use of your legs and pulling yourself up using a rope. We would have turned around but we did not want to go back down the stuff!  I was so focused, breathing so hard, and sweating so much that I forgot to take pictures of these climbs. The peak was disappointing.  We were literally in a cloud so there was absolutely no view.  We did have a lot of pride by making it to the peak the hard way though!  I completely forgot I had a sinus infection after all of that!  We took the much more enjoyable hike down on the well-traveled trail. Anyway, on the way back down, the group of retirees were still hanging out.  We were not surprised that retirees would still be hanging out :) We enjoyed some tea and coffee with them (James was sooooo excited about the coffee).

Wooden bridges

Ladders

That's a big tree and a good looking guy!

This waterfall seemed so magical that I took a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2H7NmBuP1Q&feature=youtu.be

We don't know the other hikers but I decided to include them in the video!

This large tree was actually hollow and mostly dead.  We assumed it was hit by lighting.  

Action photo!

The prettiest part of the day was actually the drive down the mountain.  Sigh...the views were gorgeous!!!!

That's about it for now except  I officially opened a Taiwanese bank account today!  Also, James has a friend from college traveling to Taiwan that we look forward to sharing next weekend's adventures with.  

Zai jian!

If you can't take the heat, then get out of the kitchen!

So, August is hotter than July so far.  We have been told by the majority of people here that August is the hottest month in Taiwan.  So, if you can't take the August heat and humidity, then don't come to Taiwan! The weather reminds me of New Orleans or Central Florida during the summer.

We have become social butterflies once again.  Last weekend we enjoyed a laid back weekend in Hsinchu. Our friend from New Zealand (who also dropped out of our free Chinese classes) introduced us to one of his favorite vegetarian restaurants for lunch.  After lunch he showed us some quiet running trails at the Hsinchu Botanical Gardens.  We met up with another friend from Vancouver for dinner to introduce her to our favorite restaurant.  She is actually more obsessed with the fruit here than we are!  We have made plans to have a mango tasting party together one day soon.  We'll buy all the different types of mangoes here at once so we can decide which one we like the best.

On Saturday James surprised me by bringing home a used iPhone 4!  He found a Hsinchu college student who started an used phone "store" through facebook called the Panda Store.  What a sweet husband!  Being the great salesman he is, James made a good deal with him.  I am officially a proud owner of an Apple product now :)  We use a pre-paid minutes and texting service with our phones to avoid the monthly bill (plus how many people are we going to chat with that live in Taiwan on the phone?).  Also, we have wi-fi in our apartment and wi-fi is available in many places around Taiwan (like James' school, restaurants, etc) so we are able to use the data function regularly.  The main reasons we use the iPhone here is for the map that show your current location and the camera.  We also downloaded audio for learning Chinese.  We've learned more from listening to lesson 1 about three times while walking, running, hanging laundry to dry, etc than we did in our six hours of Chinese classes!

On Sunday, we set out to explore a trail about an hour and a half drive outside of Hsinchu.  However, when we stopped for gas about 40 minutes in I told James I really was tired of the sitting on scooter (and no patience this particular morning).  For the first time in our explorations in Taiwan, we just followed brown road signs (usually indicates a park, trail or temple) written only in Chinese.  We had a pleasant surprise and discovered a whole new trail that is a loop (not just an out and back)!  We liked it so much we returned on Tuesday morning for a trail run.

I would like to live in one of those houses!

A typical map at parks that we somehow manage to figure out where to go on the trail...or someone who speaks some English will come ask us if we need help!

Sunday ended with a potluck after church where we contributed daily eaten items in the Rockwell apartment - cut fruit and frozen veggies.  I am very thankful we found this church.  It's a good place with good people :)

Teaching is fine.  I am not writing about James' teaching experience because he keeps promising to write a blog posting...  I had two favorite parts of this week.  I have been giving a 7-year old boy from my beginner class private lessons (so he can catch up with the rest of the class).  He is so polite and focuses so well!  I really wish I could communicate more with him but he would need a lot of more private classes to get to that level!  Anyways, James' grandmother, Gammy, sent us some Care Bear stickers in the mail to give to our students.  I pulled out a sheet of the stickers to give him at the end of our lesson.  I intended to tell him to pick out a couple of the stickers.  He got so excited that he grabbed the whole sheet and said "Thank you Teacher!"  I decided it was best to let him keep the whole sheet, plus he deserves all the stickers he wants!  Also, my Friday evening ended on a good note.  One of my students offered me a bite of his snack (which was dried ramen noodles so I kindly accepted a small bite).  Then, as I was walking out the door, he was in the car with his mother.  He started yelling "Goodbye Teacher!!!!!!"  I went over and gave him a high five.  I like feeling loved by my students much more than feeling that I make their life miserable from learning English!  By the way, even living 8,000 miles away from Atlanta, my favorite part of every weekday is still coming home to hang out with my husband, eat dinner, and exchange stories from the day ;)

A few other things of note:

1.  I received my official Alien Residence Card!  I am a legal teacher in Taiwan.
2.  James and I have been keeping track of our expenses monthly for quite some time.  We have cut our expenses by more than 70% from living in Atlanta.  The reasons are rent, gas for the cars, car insurance, cell phone bills, and James' business expenses.  Living simple has its advantages.... James spent a grand total of $30USD last month in gas for the scooter.  Awesome.
3.  We had to give our hiking buddy some information so he could apply for hiking permits for a specific trail we would like to hike soon.  We realized we had no one to list as our emergency contact.  That has never happened to me before!  We used my school manager's information and I know she would come rescue us if anything happened.  She loves her English teachers!
4.  Unfortunately, I had to go to the doctor's office this week.  I have a nasty sinus infection from who even knows what from living here - pollution in the air, the humidity, something in our AC, swimming in pools, cold springs or the ocean.  Anyway, I went to the ear, nose, and throat doctor.  The whole process was incredibly efficient.  My school manager took me since I had to fill out some info in Chinese for the first visit. I was assigned a waiting number.  Within five minutes, I was called to the back.  The doctor saw me immediately.  I walked to the front counter.  The receptionist handed me a slip of paper with my prescription. We walked to the pharmacy next door where the prescription was filled in about 3 minutes.  With the National Taiwanese Health Insurance, the doctor's visit cost $5 USD and the prescription cost $0.66 USD.  Unfortunately, I had to return again (they are really funny about giving you medicine for more than 3 days at a time which is not cool if you need some serious antibiotics...).  The doctor told me a needed an x-ray of my sinuses.  I walked upstairs, immediately had an x-ray, walked back downstairs, and immediately saw the doctor who had my x-rays on his computer.  Apparently most of the doctors in Taiwan speak English pretty well which is a plus!  One of the other English teachers at my school sees a Chinese herbal doctor when he is sick which is also covered under the National Taiwanese Health Insurance.  Maybe I will try that one some other time....

I told James we should start a nightly tradition of telling each other one thing that was awesome about our days.  I have decided to list a few reasons why living in Taiwan is awesome to fight through the homesickness that comes when you are not feeling your best:

1.  We don't have to deal with the stress and expense of owning a car.
2.  We have not been stuck in traffic since we arrived in Taiwan.
3.  We eat at restaurants and buy pre-cut food for 75% of our diet.  It is quite convenient.  It's incredible and odd that we pay less to eat out than to cook our own food.
4.  The non-existent crime is very nice.  One of our buddies accidentally left his scooter keys in the scooter while parked at the train station for over a week and it did not get stolen.  Where else could that happen at a busy train station?
5.  Our work schedule is actually great for us now since we are more used to it.  The ability to be relaxed and take your time in the morning is great, especially for us morning exercise fanatics.
6.  We stand most of the day at work except when lesson planning.   When I used to sit all day at work, I thought I had a hamstring injury because they would get so tight.
7.  It's easy to get around the country without a car.  The bus and train systems are great.  It would help if we knew a bit more Chinese though...
8.  Exploration leads to beautiful scenery 100% of the time in Taiwan.
9.  The AC is never freezing anywhere here except the RT Mart.  Although the heat is brutal, not having to bring a coat for the arctic to work everyday and to walk in every store and restaurant during the summer is nice.
10.  The best tasting fruit in the WORLD!!!!!

For a final note, I have been enjoying this song recently by one of my favorite Christian artists, Steven Curtis Chapman.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpYEwbHPjrs

A short blog for a short story

I forgot something in the last blog!

Last weekend James and I were at the bus stop in Hsinchu.  A guy at the bus stop asked James if he had run the Georgia Marathon since he was wearing the race T-shirt.  It turned out the guy is from Atlanta, graduated from GA Tech one year before me, and is working at an Industrial Park in Hsinchu for a one year contract. So, for the count, 1 for GA Tech (or the entire southeast) and 3 for Grand Valley State University (and about 30 for Michigan).  

Also, a friend who has been teaching in South Korea for a few months posted this chart on culture shock on Facebook.  I really hope this is wrong for James and I! I certainly don't feel like I am in a honeymoon phase after two months but I may be in denial. I think we hit the crisis phase on Day 4 so maybe we are way ahead of schedule :) 

A long and long overdue blog

The days are flying by much faster now than before!  They are flying by so fast that I have no had the time to write a blog posting.  We have officially been in Taiwan for two months now.  I must say that it feels like we have been here MUCH longer!

The day after the typhoon we met up with some new friends to go hiking.  This is the first time since we have been in Taiwan that we actually made social plans!  One of the guys loves hiking and knows all the good hiking spots, so we headed out towards the small town of Neiwan on our scooters with our "tour guide" and three more of his friends.  Once we reached Neiwan and started driving up the mountain, we learned that the typhoon had caused a mass amount of damage, including landslides.  The locals were cleaning up the roads at top speeds.  We gradually made our way up the mountain just to find out the road to the hiking trail was closed.  We did have some great views though!  On our way back down the mountain, we stopped for a quick dip in cold springs.  It was a relief after driving around on such a hot day!  It's pretty awesome that we can just go take a dip in the endless amounts of cold and hot springs in the mountains.

Some nasty roads due to typhoon damage

A house we made a quick stop to check out.  One of the ladies with us has a friend that rent this house for $1,000 USD/year. 

Some good views

Enjoying the cold springs

As far as teaching goes, it is going.  I have my highs and lows with teaching.  Overall, I enjoy it. However, some days it seems like all the students have too much energy or not enough energy.  On the days they are full of energy, I feel like I am leading a 3-ring circus.  The classroom is just nuts!  On the days they have no energy, I feel like I am torturing them by making them play games and speak English.  

The other teacher returned from vacation, so no more junior high students!!!!!  But on the flip side, I am disappointed he is taking over the "summer camp" class.  I really liked that class!  The young class (Phonics A) is becoming one of my most enjoyable classes.  The students are starting to "get the hang" of school and the classroom scene.  They are all just so cute and ridiculously happy at times.  My other young class is struggling to understand my pronunciations of certain words.  The previous teacher had a strong British accent.  The students are not doing as well on the spelling/phonics quizzes as they were before.  For example, one of the words was "black" and several of the students wrote "block." Hopefully they will get used to my accent soon...

I have now seen two of my students outside of school.  It's very entertaining to me for some reason.  It really seems to freak them out and they don't know what to say :)

James and I are official drop-outs.  We are no longer attending our free Chinese classes at the University :-(   The class was way over our heads from the beginning (I can't believe they called this a Beginner's Class!) and we were not studying the material they gave us.  With our teaching schedule, attending Chinese classes for a mere three hours a week was just too stressful.  Personally, I was showing up at school a little later than I preferred.  I already felt rushed and just confused from attempting to speak Chinese.  We were called out in class several times for not studying.  It was really embarrassing for me :(  I never do that to my students.  In our defense, how were we going to study whenever we pronounce everything wrong?  Plus, what's the point of starting a beginner's Chinese class with family names?  I can say little brother but I still can't count to five or ask how much something costs.  Really?!  Sorry...I needed to vent about it.  They really should have given us some audio to listen to for studying.  The entertaining part about us quitting is that we seriously see the main instructor for the class almost daily.  He is a tall, large man from Israel who has been teaching English/learning Chinese for the past 20 years.  He is exactly who you would picture as a bodyguard or security guard.  He lives near us, eats at the same vegan restaurant as we do everyday for lunch, exercises at the University gym, and teaches English at a school right next to mine. Seriously?!

There seemed to be some confusion for some of the blog readers on who is feeding (literally) their sugar addiction.  That is James, not me.  I must confess that I do have an addiction to the sweet potatoes sold at Family Mart though.  I am not surprised since I have had a sweet potato addiction on and off ever since I ate at least two sweet potatoes a day at the dining hall in college.  I tanned orange that summer.  No lie!

The summer heat and humidity here is close to unbearable.  Of course, it makes it worse that James and I don't wake up and start our run until about 9am with our schedule.  Others have told us we are at the worst part of summer that will last through the end of August.  It will be nice to not be dripping sweat after my walk to school!  All of the students are always sweaty during class, too :)

A random fact - Every grocery store here has a full isle dedicated to ramen noodles.  I have never really eaten ramen until recently.  I must say it is quite delicious mixed with some frozen veggies!  Also the tofu section is about the same size at the meat section.  

Last weekend we felt like it was time to do an overnight trip.  It had been one month since our last overnight adventure.  We decided to go to the small town of Wulai famous for its waterfalls, hot springs, hiking, sticky rice cooked in bamboo sticks, and fried bees.  A couple of our new friends joined us for the journey.  One of the guys is from Paris doing an internship in Taiwan for the summer.  It was nice to chat about all of my great memories of the city from my study abroad trip eight years ago.  

We are finally learning how to "travel light."  We packed for the whole weekend in my camelback bag (notice the small blue backpack I am wearing in all the pictures) and a small black backpack that James is wearing.  Unfortunately we forgot to make me be the camera girl for a while so James is only in one picture, so you can't really see the backpack he is wearing.  Anyways, we were pretty proud of ourselves!

We took a bus from Hsinchu to Taipei (less than $4 for the one hour trip).  Then, the MRT to the most southern stop (about 30 minutes of travel time).  Then, a bus to Wulai (about a 40 minute journey south of Taipei).  We arrived at literally a whole new world!  After a stop at the visitor's center, we were disappointed to find out the hike we wanted to do was closed due to damage from the typhoon.  That typhoon keeps messing up our hiking plans!  Anyways, we made the best of it and started on a journey of Wulai by foot.  We walked for about 2 hours full of scenic views to get to the National Park with a famous waterfall.  It was well worth the journey!  The park not only had a three tiered waterfall but also a hike with pine and cedar trees.  I had no idea Taiwan had cedar trees.  On our journey back to town, we stopped at a cold springs swimming hole to cool off.  Once back in the town, James and I cancelled our hotel reservations.  There were no other hikes for us to do and the hot springs sounded extremely unappealing in this hot weather.  We did get to eat sticky rice cooked in bamboo sticks and mountain vegetables.  One of the vegetables is actually a leaf grown on a tree.  None of us tried fried bees!

Papaya Tree

Walking down the road.  We chose walking over paying for the mini-train. 

Waterfall #1

After the long walk, we arrived at the three-tiered waterfall.  Tier #1

Tier #2

Walking up to Tier #3

Tier #3

View from our hike

Pine trees and cedar trees

An overly friendly butterfly

What kind of spider makes a web like this?!

Enjoying cold springs with the locals

Yuck!  Gross!  That spider is huge!  We were not willing to stick a hand in the picture for perspective.  It is literally the size of your face.  Not kidding.   

Waterfall #5003...we saw a lot of waterfalls...

Sticky rice cooked in bamboo sticks

We headed back to Taipei on the bus thinking we might just go back to Hsinchu.  I had a change of heart and decided we should stay in Taipei for the night.  James agreed.  We went from hotel to hotel looking for a room that was less than $70 USD.  This is difficult to find in Taipei on a Saturday night even if your room has cockroaches.  The city is alive and crowded.  After only a few stops, we found a room at a decent hotel for $60 USD.  For the first time in a while, I enjoyed a hot shower and a cold room.  Those are real luxuries around here!  We have yet to heat our water at home nor do we want to since our apartment always seems so hot.  

The free breakfast at the hotel Sunday morning was a pleasant surprise.  The buffet included green veggies, tofu squares, rice porridge, peanuts, bread and jelly, coffee (James was so happy!), tea, orange juice, fried eggs, spicy pickles, and some other things that I don't know what they are to tell you.  

The breakfast was a good start to our adventurous day!  We rode a bus to Keelung and then another bus to the small town of Jiufen.  Jiufen is on the gorgeous east coast.  We did a short but very steep hike to the top of Keelung mountain for some scenic views.  We walked down the famous crowded street in Jiufen.  They are famous for their sweet potato taro balls.  We tried a free sample and they are not good!  They are so chewy!  Yuck!  Instead of continuing on to the Gold Ecological Park a few bus stops further away, we decided to call it a day.  We will be back to go the the Gold Ecological Park though!  

What buses are for...sleeping!

A typical bus

Keelung's port.  The large ship is a cruise ship to Hong Kong.  Maybe someday?

Beginning of the hike

A large group with flags and drums that had just finished the hike.  I am glad they were not on the hike with us.  It would have been one crowded and noisy path!

Sigh...the lovely east coast

Famous Old Street in Jiufen

Taro balls

I promised James he could get a coffee if we went to the Crocs (type of shoes) store in Taipei not too far from the main station.  First of all, I want to say that I still think Taipei is an awesome city.  The Crocs store was located in this large shopping area with no cars.  The streets were filled with performers and people shopping.  Everyone spoke English at the Crocs store and were very helpful.  My reasoning behind these shoes is that I destroyed the work shoes I brought from home.  I have never had a smelly feet problem until now.  I am just sweating so so so much that everything reeks.  (I hope that was not too much information!) Crocs can be hand-washed because they are all rubber.  So, I found the perfect pair for work.  I once had someone tell me that owning a pair of Crocs is life-changing.  Well, my life is at its limit for changes but I must say these shoes are so comfortable for standing and teaching all day!  I also had one of my students say to me, "Teacha, are those new shoes?!"  It made my day :)

Shopping area in Taipei

View of Taipei 101 from the bus with the mountains in the background

My new Crocs!

We made it back to Hsinchu safe and tired on Sunday night.  It was a great weekend break before another crazy week at work!

Random pictures - 

A sticker on someone's scooter.  James said he looks like this in class sometimes :)

Typhoon damage at the University in Hsinchu