Eating Out

For those of you that have never had the chance to eat at a hot pot restaurant, please take advantage of the next opportunity you get.  

We have eaten at several different hot pots while here, but none compare to Guo Da Yeh.  The other night we decided to just find a nice place to eat out for a change.  We have been somewhat reluctant to venture too far out of our comfort zones, mostly because it is difficult to determine which foods have protein and would be safe for Lauren.  Even foods like rice noodles, which in the states would have no protein, have thrown us curve balls while we are here.  Most of the time we try to be cautious and prepare our own foods, unless we are with people that can help us be certain about what we are ordering, but the other night we were just itching for a night on the town.

Almost immediately after we left our apartment, it began lightly raining.  This didn't bother us; it was a welcome refreshment from the persistant heat, and boy did it cool us down.  In fact, by the time we arrived at the restaurant, we were pretty cold.  And when we walked in, the air conditioning that greeted us chilled us to the bone.  This is the perfect atmosphere to enjoy steaming hot soup that cooks in front of you.

Taiwan has an amazing variety of imitation meat products.  They asked what kinds of meat we wanted with our soup and we told them they were vegetarian, so they just brought us this platter with fake hot dogs, crab, squid, ham and mounds of tofu.  I have never been a fan of fake meats, but I thought I would give these a try and I must say that they are actually very close to tastes they mimic.  Of course, it's been about five years since I had meat, so my memory may not be totally accurate.

I suppose the ambiance created by the steamed windows and the smells of delicious food percolating helped make the evening a wonderful experience for us.  It wasn't just about the good food and environment, though.  There was something magical in that evening that is difficult to articulate.  When we left, the rain had stopped, the sun had set, and the night was alive.  Steam rose from the hot, wet streets, releasing that smell of freshness that follows a rainstorm.  The heightened humidity distilled in the cool night air and refreshed us as we scootered through the neon streets, swimming in the sensory stream of sights, smells and sounds that are simultaneously foreign and familiar.   

I Work in a Castle!

These are pictures of the elementary school that is on our high schools campus. It is an awesome building that looks like a genuine castle. For the past few weeks I have been teaching some English classes for the pre-school and kindergarten. I can not tell you how much fun it is. I love my job! Unfortunately, it is only for an hour a week, but I am enjoying every minute. The kids are so stinking cute and they learn fairly quickly. I don't know if they know what they are singing but they can sure sing and play some serious duck, duck, goose. At first they couldn't stop talking about my blonde hair or trying to climb onto me, but they've become much more accustomed to me now. I do still get a hug after every class form each kid though and I cherish it. 

Tainan

This past weekend, we took a trip to Tainan, the city just north of Koahsiung, to see a few of the sites there. We went with a couple of friends from here in Taiwan so we had some direction.  We went to some old military sites, where I got to shoot off a canon (pictures below), and some Buddhist temples that were both lovely and ornate. Rob really enjoyed learning about the religion in Taiwan, which is very unique, combining several different ideals and religions into one. 

The day was really fun with all of our exploring, but it was super hot even for here. I was feeling really worn out when we stopped to get a drink. There are drink places all over here but the place that we stopped at was only serving winter melon juice. It is sort of a belief that the winter melon juice cools down your body better than anything else. I was ready to drink anything at this point, but I did not expect it to be such a treat. It tastes exactly like drinking caramel. I was shocked it was so good. If you ever get a chance to try some winter melon juice take it!

 This is the god of education so of course we had to get a picture of Rob with him. This picture makes me laugh because there is actually a man standing behind Rob. He wouldn't move so I just took the photo. Can you see him at all? I swear he is there. 

The picture on the right is me with the traditionally dressed soldiers before I shot the canon. They asked for a volunteer from the audience and of course I was the most enthusiastic volunteer. As you can see I look massive compared to these men. Above is the little spark that is supposed to be the big canon. Below, my goofy grin.

I just thought this was the cutest little Chinese face! This is Faustina and we met here through some of the other teachers. She has been great to Rob and I. 

This was our first trip taking the train and it was really exciting for me. This particular
station is pretty famous for this lovely ceiling art.

A Strange Visit

Last night we got to meet up with somebody that was in Rob's mission at the same time he was. I think it is strange that we've had contact with two people who served their mission in the Philippines here. The other one, Nathan, teaches at the school with us. It was a very interesting dinner as he was very content to be silent. His friend, Allen, was Taiwanese and although he had a pretty good grasp on English he was also content to use as little as possible of it. I thought Rob and I carried the conversation quite nicely, but I always like our company so I'm biased. It is nice to know that we have friends here in Taiwan though and I was grateful for the chance to meet up with one of Rob's mission buddies.

It was about a twenty minute scooter ride to where we were meeting him, and the sun was just setting when we got there. It was lovely so I snapped some pictures before going to dinner.

Aerial view of Kaohsiung City. 

A while ago Rob and I went to a lake here in Kaohsiung called Chengcing Lake. There was a very large park surrounding the lake with a lot of things to see including this sideways tower below (sorry it wouldn't let me load it right side up). Rob was so excited to climb it that we indeed climbed all 236 stairs to get to the top. While at the top, we could see a panoramic view of the city, and it was much larger than I had first thought. Here are a few pictures showing just how large the city really is. Our boss calls the area that we live in the country because it is much quieter and smaller than the surrounding areas. You can also see how big that park is. It was a really nice day exploring the park. 

Time has been flying by.  Another week has come and gone, and with it a great many memories.  This week we had the opportunity of meeting the BYU modern dance team, Kinnect, who came to Taiwan to participate in an international dance conference in Taipei.  It turns out Clinton, a former teacher, is also a former member of Kinnect, and he invited them to come perform at the school in Kaohsiung.  As a way of thanking them for their performance, Steve Yang, our department director and BYU graduate, took the dancers on a tour of Kenting National Park, and we were invited to tag along since Steve knew we probably didn't have much else occupying our schedule.

Kenting is famous for its beaches, but in particular the rocky coral beaches which adorn most of the southern coastline.  The park is also one of the most popular tourist destinations in Taiwan, and during the summer months it is packed with travelers from all over the globe.  The small sandy beach we stopped at was packed with people swimming, sunbathing, and playing games.  It was a party.  In addition to the national park, there is a touristy town in Kenting that, at night, turns into a bustling market with small shops and food stands lining about a 3/4 mile long stretch of highway.  We stopped at about eight different food stands, sampling a wide array of goodies ranging from deep fried milk to barbecued corn on the cob to dancing shaved ice (which was fantastic).  During the day we jumped from one scenic vista to another and soaked in the sun and beautiful surroundings (fortunately we remembered to wear sunscreen and didn't fry ourselves).  Overall it was a week of great fun, great food, and new friends.

 The first beach we stopped at was a little rocky but really fun to climb around. 

 This is Rob wandering and exploring. Sometimes I would turn around and not know where he went. 

 If you look really closely you can see some Taiwanese buffalo in the middle of the picture. 

 This is the beach right across from the hotel that we stayed at. The hotel had an indoor water park for anyone who didn't want to go in the sun. The water was only about three feet at the deepest point. 

 This is the night market street and the dancing shaved ice. There were 

tons of tourists there and lost of good stuff. 

 I had to laugh when I saw this picture because why would anyone take a picture so crooked? These are some of the dancers that we got to hang out with on the trip in front of a lighthouse. 

 This is our friend Karen, the BYU dance team director taking a photo of a pretty funny sign. 

It reads, "Notice: Dangerous coral reef area, please don' take risks to stay around!"

 A huge spider about as long as my hand. Definitely the 

biggest spider I've seen in nature. 

What a dashing young man!

Pictures of Food

The Taiwanese people like to take pictures of pretty much anything, which includes almost every meal prepared for them. This is our first food picture. Rob is quite the chef and he has prepared most of the meals for us here in Taiwan. One of his specialties is fried rice, and dang he can make some good fried rice. Since I have PKU, I've kind of had to adjust the way I eat here. The cheapest/most common way to eat is to go out to the street stands and pick something up. With limited language and little knowledge of what they put in their food I'm nervous to do that here. We are still kind of breaking into our life in Taiwan and it will become easier as it goes along, but for now I can look forward to fried rice (without the egg of course).

This is a photo recap of our trip up the east side of Taiwan. I hope you enjoy

There were a ton of people at this little stream taking pictures. The stream actually runs up hill. 

I thought this was a really cool picture because you can actually see where the rock

was skipping along the surface. Rob is really good at skipping rocks, and I love watching him.

The classic Asian pose in front of the eight arch bridge.

These are the boys and their fireworks for the 4th of July. 

I love riding tandem bikes!! We got to ride this champ along the beach trail in Haulien.

We stopped here on our bike ride to take some really beautiful pictures. 

I could've spent hours here at the beach just looking at cool rocks and feeling the waves, but unfortunately we all got pretty badly burned and had to leave. In Taiwan they are really afraid of the ocean so no one is allowed to swim. That didn't really stop Rob. 

We stopped at a park where there were some hot air balloons. I could not believe 

how many people there were taking pictures. 

There was a frog just chilling in the middle of the park. You can kind of see 

how bad the sunburn is on my legs. 

The view from our hostel. 

This is not a very good picture of me but I love the sunburn line on my arms.