Day 2

Our second day of vacation started out with us getting a little bit lost on our scooters trying to find the church. Luckily we did find it, and it was beautiful! It was my first time attending church all in Chinese, but luckily we had a nice missionary to translate for us.
Right after church we stopped off at the hostel and headed out for one of Taiwan's must see places, Taroko Gorge. I'm stealing this quote from a friend's travel book, because it will describe it better than I can

"Taroko Gorge is simply a spectacular place, a wonderland of natural beauty that would leave even the most jaded visitor impressed. Its deep marble canyons, rushing white water, and towering cliffs put it in league with the world's best scenic attractions".

- National Geographic Traveler Taiwan page 134

We took a bus up through the park, and then stopped off to take a little hike over to some beautiful buildings. We had gone a ways up into the mountain hanging out in a bell tower when we heard some chanting coming from below. There was actually a monastery a little further down the trail, and we decided to go check it out.



To get to the monastery we had to cross this swinging suspension bridge, and by this time we were wondering if the chanting was a recording, because it sounded so surreal. When we made it up a few more flights of stairs we were lucky enough to see the monks worshiping, and the extravagantly decorated temple. I think my favorite park of the walk was the view from the bell tower, which you can see above.
I had to put up these pictures of some super nice friends we met at church. They ended up picking us up to do fireworks, and taking us to get some really good food at a night market. They even came to say goodbye on our last day in Haulien! More on the great memories of Taroko coming with day three:)

Chinese New Year Vacation Day One

Our Chinese New Year started out with the kids in our school putting on a super cute program. There was a lot of dancing, including a traditional dragon dance! It was a great way to say goodbye to the school for a few days to go and explore more of the island.

That night before packing for our early morning train ride, we had our own Chinese New Year feast! As you can see from the picture it was pretty amazing- and it tasted even better than it looked:)

After our almost five hour train ride up and around to the east coast of the island, we stowed our luggage at the hostel and took off to rent scooters. Going down the highway was one of the most gorgeous rides I have ever been on. I got pretty good at the scooter driving, and enjoyed a lot of beautiful scenery. We kept going until daylight was gone, and on the way back I was able to see the waves continue crashing onto the shore. Almost everywhere we went was deserted, and we fell in love with the quiet power of the ocean.

As we got closer to the town we came upon a Buddist Temple, very much decorated for the New Year. We pulled up to take a look, and the only person we saw was a Buddist Nun who invited us to join them for Chinese New Year dinner! It is crazy to me how willing everyone is to share here, the culture is a great example to me. Everyday I meet people who literally will drop all they are doing to serve others.
I have to admit that isn't the first time I have been offered food in a temple, even with the language barrier they find ways to give. This meal was huge of course, being the New Year dinner. Luckily Buddists are also vegetarians, and we didn't have to worry too much about what we were eating:)

One of the first couple of weeks we were here exploring the night life of Taiwan we decided to go see the movie everyone had been talking about. Here is a super fun video of our adventure in a four story theater.

I have a lot of catching up to do, but have really busy this week with lesson plans, and teaching of course. Today the kids had a program with dancing and questions and answers about Chinese New Year. It was a test on how well we have been teaching them about it in English! It was super fun to watch:)

Anyway back to the catching up- here are a few more pictures before I head off on a vacation tomorrow-

This first one is down the street from where I live. As you can see there are A LOT of street signs, and NO English. It is a little strange to not really know what much is called around you. When signs do come with English translations they are usually pretty memorable. Such as the dentist around the corner simply called Wonderful Dentist:)
Next are some pics of the market, some from a fruit market we really like, and others some that I am still not used to. The markets are one of my favorite things about Taiwan! It is so much fun to go and wander around and smell and experience new things!

Taiwan!

I have decided to make a blog so that I can stay in better touch with friends and family. Since I am a month in I am going to post some pics and videos of our adventures so far. It has been so fun!!

Here are a couple of videos we took at a park in a nearby city we were exploring with the secretaries from our school. It is called water zorbing, and it is a blast! I have loved the days we get to just go look around and see the sites of Taiwan. This park was gorgeous!



This is at a really pretty park near our school/house. A lot of the time in the morning there are locals there doing tai chi in the morning. They love to have us come over and try it with them.














This huge Buddha is in a nearby city, one of our friends we met at church took us to see it and some other temples nearby. I will for sure post some pictures of temples soon. The group of teachers in the other city said they have one even bigger than this! I'm excited to go see so I can compare:)