"The Best Part of Beauty is that which No Picture can Express."

HAPPY 2 MONTHS IN TAIWAN ! 

Well I have tried stinky tofu folks, and I am not a fan. As horrible as it smells, just like a dirty baby's diaper, surprisingly some of the girls like it. I, however, could not get it down and had to slyly spit it out into a napkin. A stroll through the night market on any given evening will always have it's surprises. We ran into a stand which consisted of large male 'members' being served at your choice of ice cream, corn dog, doughnut, or soap. We also found an alley way fortune teller where my roommate Kelly had her love fortune told. Fortune telling is a fairly common practice here, it's actually recommended as part of the Taiwan experience.

Great news: Finally had our first payday! Hip hip hooray!!

Bad news: I am the last one to have a scooter -_-

Over the weekend, the majority of us teachers joined Uncle Michael and his wife for a 2 hour bus ride North to New Taipei, the Capitol of Taiwan. We left at 6 in the morning and stopped at a temple on the way out of town. We recieved Tao, pronounced 'dao,' which means "the way" or "the path." In English this is referred to as Taoism, related closely with Confucianism and Zen Buddhism. We kneeled while we took our bows, said the words, became blessed by The Master and were given the Three Treasures of Tao. The second treasure is the Tao ancient saying, which consists of five words. We are only permitted to speak the words inside of a temple. We can not share them with anyone who has not recieved Tao or speak them outside of the temple. We should think of these words in time of need, much like a prayer to God. Almost anyone can recieve Tao, but only ONCE in your life can you recieve it.
The temple was beautiful inside. In the front of the room sat three large, mostly golden, statues of ancient Tao leaders. Bright colors, candles, incense all filled the room. Unfortunately, no photography is allowed. Afterwards, we were congratulated and given instructions to weave a ball with 5 different colors and to place a bell inside. The 5 colors and the bell is for luck and remembrance of Tao.

A few of us were extremely tired on the bus and had hoped to sleep comfortably for at least an hour. Not the case. Apparently we were on a karaoke bus.  The entire drive to Taipei consisted of unnecessary loud Taiwanese women and men singing songs that we of course could not understand. I mean unbearbly loud, it was miserable. The karaoke did not stop there, we also endured it on our bus ride home. This was when we decided, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. We enthusiastically sang, "My Girl," "Pretty Woman," "Can't Take my Eyes off of You," and "I Can't Help Falling in Love with You." Only then did we realized we encouraged them to continue singing. Many Taiwanese came to thank us, shake our hand, and record us singing. Quite the experience.

We finally arrived at Jingtong Train Station, were we got to spend an hour eating lunch, walking over a "love bridge" and gift shops. For lunch we had a banana, a seaweed wrap with rice, tofu, corn and some kind of seafood meat inside and a pancake with bean stuffing. The drink was a prune tea, not good at all. At the gift shops I picked out some souvenirs and post cards for family. The Jingtong rail way tracks are the actual tracks left from the coal mining days. Because of this, many people were taking photos on the tracks before the train came.

The train sped on by and we jumped on to take it to our next destination. It was here we walked over the coal miners dedication bridge, which reminded me of a book I once read called, Dragon's Gate. (Great book for upper elementary students.) In this area there were lots of people sending off giant lantern, this got my attention. Erin and I paid 100NT to decorate our own lantern and sent it off into the sky. Each color represented something different. For example, pink was luck in happiness, blue was luck in transportation, there was also one for luck in studying. We chose white, luck for the future.

We ventured to our main destination, the Shifen Waterfall. The Shifen Waterfall is the broadest waterfall in Taiwan, 132 feet. We found many elegant and grade statues throughout the hiking area around the waterfall. While we were here there was a woman who continually attempted to speak to me in Chinese. I finally had it translated and she was telling me I was beautiful. She also wanted a picture with me. The funny part, for the picture she grabbed my waist with one hand and put her other hand on my shoulder. It felt like an engagement photo.

Our last stop was a beautiful lantern night market in New Taipei. (The actual Lantern Festival takes place after the Chinese New Year, it is one of several festivals in Taiwan.) We had one hour to eat dinner and look around. After being blessed in Tao we are not supposed to eat meat for 24 hours. The menu was all in Chinese, (usually there is an English one to look at) but we were pointed to the vegetarian meals and we ordered blindly. I was not surprised 4 out of 5 meals showed up as tofu. We did not finish all of the food, so we boxed the rest up and gave it to a homeless man who was sitting near the front of the market. I could see in his reaction that he was more than grateful for the food. It was a very heart warming moment.

Back in Taichung:
For the past two nights the moon has been more visibly clear than I have seen in many many years. I could not help but stop and stare.
In the night market, I had my first American style bacon cheese burger at an adorable little place called Rabbit Rabbit. I also had my first pedicure which was 90 minutes long!
 


I meant a young Taiwanese man with pretty good English named Sam last week. We went to a great Japanese restaurant where we had a hot pot among other things for dinner. Hot pots are very popular here and are found many places. Basically they have water, soy sauce, and the food you have chosen simmering in a metal pan on a small fire at your table. Very fresh and tasty! Later we went to see my first movie in Taiwan. We went to see Elysium with Matt Damon. Luckily for me, the movies remain in English and have Chinese subtitles. It's unfortunate for the Taiwanese that have to read every movie they want to go see. Sam has been teaching me some Chinese as well which is a great bonus to the friendship. I have learned how to say, "I have a younger sister." "Can you dance?" "I like to shop." "I love my grandma."
The wonderful Chinese staff put on a great surprise pot luck birthday party for our boss Susan. She turned 28. This is her first year as the "principal" of Cornel. Everyone brought a dish. After the surprise and the singing we ate it all! The Chinese staff put great thought into her birthday. They played a video which had a recorded message from her parents in South Africa, former teachers, and her sister. Quite the tear jerker.

Uncle Michael invited the Shang An girls to play the Nan Men girls in a game of volleyball. As a member of the Nan Men Campus I can say that we took a horrible beating by Shang An. It was still a great time. We mixed up the teams and even invited other people into our game which made the day even better.

Fun facts:
Corn is the ONLY vegetable you will find in the canned isle.
The night clubs have major themes, if you abide by the themes you can get in for free, including free drinks. However, smoking is still allowed inside :-(

Taiwan's histororical/original name was Formosa, meaning beautiful island. The name was given by the Portuguese.

It is the year 102 in Taiwan. In 1912 Taiwan was established as the  people's Republic of China, ROC.
Valentine's Day in Taiwan is the 7th day of the 7th lunar month, which happened to be August 13th this year. Also called Tanabata or the Qixi Festival.
Taiwanese are born at 1 years old not 0 as we are. They have birth dates, BUT they do not add a number to their age until Chinese New Year. Therefore, everyone gets a year older at the same time. 

Thanks for reading -K

"To go out with the setting sun on an empty beach is to truly embrace your solitude."

Kenting, Taiwan 

This weekend I headed south to Kenting with the 5 girls I worked with at the ShangAn campus AND 4 of the amazing Chinese staff; Glory, Patricia, ChiaChi, and Maureen. It took us a little over 3 hours to get to Kaohsiung (2nd largest city in Taiwan), and from there we took a taxi to our hotel in Kenting.

Saying the Chinese staff is amazing does not do justice for what I am implying, so I will give a few examples. First arriving in Taiwan I brought $700 U.S. dollars AKA $18,800 NT. Our first paycheck is not until August 8, so for 7 weeks I have lived in another country and done all of these amazing things off of that money, however I was down to my last $5oo NT ($15) when this trip was planned. Glory let me borrow the money I would need for Kenting and any of the activities I wanted to do! They also rented scooters through the hotel and offered to drive us so we were able to see multiple beaches, the night market, and have a few adult beverages.
 

We arrived at our adorable hotel called, Seeds of Heart. Like most things in Taiwan, it was brightly colored and had its cute decorations. We were right across from the ocean and of course we had a 7 Eleven next to us.

We scooted to a beach that was much less rocky than the one across from us. The waves were some of the biggest I have ever seen in all my travels to oceans.  All of the beaches were incredibly packed with people. The weekend we went was actually the last weekend most Taiwanese people would be allowed to go because of their belief in Ghost Month. 



Ghost month, also known as Hungry Ghost Festival begins on the 15th night of the 7th lunar month. Just as many other Taiwanese holidays and festivals, the time of the Ghost month is based off the lunar calendar.  The belief is that the realm of Heaven and Hell are opened and that ghosts and spirits from the lower realms come out to visit the living. Taiwanese will cook elaborate meals and set it out at empty seats to feed their dead ancestors, then they will have to eat all of the food that remains. The belief is based from Buddhism and is meant to help relieve any suffering from the ghosts. The festivals will be taken outside of the house, but many shops and markets will close to make room for the spirits. Chiachi and Maureen told us this and many other traditions / forbidden activities that happen during this month. Such as, not going to the beach. Going to the beach would be considered very dangerous because the lower realm spirits may try to take you.  

Back to the beach, we all played around in the water as we waited for our turn on the jet ski's and the "banana boat," which is basically tubing with multiple people. Michelle and I jumped onto a jet ski, he made sure we had a dead grip on his chest, then he took off. The waves were HUGE and we were jumping, diving, turning into them. I was screaming, laughing, smiling uncontrollably. I felt so alive! We were dropped off on the banana boat, a few minutes later Katie and Rhonda joined us and we took off on our next rush. Katie had a waterproof camera, which took some great photos, including some from when she flew off the back of the banana boat!

As we took the jet ski ride in, we were mortified to hear that two people had been swept out to sea by the waves. One was found quickly, placed on a stretcher and rushed to the ambulance. The other man unfortunately did not survive. 

Before we prepared for the night, we took some pictures of the sunset. It was quiet at this time, peaceful, and more beautiful then any photo could capture.

 

We scooted down to the night market which had a variety of games, shops, and food of all different assortments. We even passed a place that Glory called a "Lady Boy" club, which would be like a drag queen bar in America. For food, I tried a bit of everything. An 'authentic cooked' sweet sausage, shrimp that was so fresh I could taste the ocean, a fried Oreo, corn dog, and cheesy potatoes. I played a game with Maureen and Rhonda where we had to shoot darts at water balloons. The other girls played basketball or a 'shooting' range. I didn't have money to buy anything really, but there are some amazing market treasures down in Kenting.

Saturday we spent out last couple hours on a different beach. The waves were much more calm when we arrived, but they picked up by noon. We were able to swim for about 45 minutes, until the lifeguards had us stay near the shoreline. Good call on their part, because the waves would knock us over even on the shoreline!  Most of the Asian men were wearing speedos, which is a definite change from back home. I also saw three different couples wearing matching board shorts, too cute. We did all the things you should do on a beach, play in the sand, lay out, enjoy the shade of a beach umbrella, people watch, etc.  


 






We made it home around 10:30 P.M. after a delicious dinner in Kaohsiung and many embarrassing shared stories on the bus ride in. I am extremely grateful to have been put at the ShangAn campus and now the NanMen campus, because now I have a strong bond with ShangAn girls and soon to be NanMen. :-) Truly Blessed in so many ways!   

I will go back to Kenting not only for the beaches, the shopping, and the people. I still have to go to Kenting National Park where the southernmost tip of Taiwan, the Eluanbi Lighthouse, is located!

Fun Facts:

-Teaching kindergarten is actually illegal in Taiwan. Were told the owner of our school has great connections.

-Gas is 35 NT, which would be $1.17 a gallon in the states.

-Taiwanese believe that ice cream and other cold beverages shrink a woman's womb and make periods more painful. This is why they drink so many hot/warm beverages. 

-Two classes, different campuses, have had to cancel school for a week because two or more students have gotten the hand, foot, mouth disease.

- Taiwanese continue you to be fascinated with us foreigners. As a group we were asked to have a picture  taken five times. Two other times I was singled out and asked. The creepiest is when we we know their snapping photos, but they don't ask.
-Father's day is August 8. But NO mother's day, so they use the American Mother's Day in May.

-Dairy products are some of the most expensive food you can buy.
-The food goes bad quickly, but that's also because they are not loaded with preservatives.

-They use real sugar which is good, but they sweeten the oddest foods like mayo or peanut butter. 

 
First time I really got to see the stars in Taiwan. :-)  --Thanks for reading  -K