Wulai Trip

On Wednesday we went on an outing to Wulai. Wulai is in the northern part of Taiwan in Taipei county. It is an aboriginal village. We took cars to get there and it took about an hour and a half. The last part of the trip is very winding roads and I got very car sick. The ladies sitting next to me were quite worried they would be wearing my breakfast. I survived though. I must remember to take my Dramamine though next time I go on a long road trip. We stopped first at this beautiful waterfall.



There were people out front dressed in aboriginal dress. We were going to go to a show to see them dance. We first went to a little gift shop full of items from the area. There were some beautiful jade pieces and handmade bags. I bought a handmade purse that is a little bigger than the one I have been carrying which is perfect for extra items that I sometimes need to carry. I did not bring enough to buy a jade pot I wanted, oh well next time.

The show was very entertaining. It was interesting to see all of their costumes and their beautiful dances. It somewhat reminded me of Hawaii in their dances and costumes. Here are a few photos that I took.










The dancers were very talented and then they even got us into the act. They gave us pieces to wear and had us join in. Here are a few photos of that. I was dancing so I could not take the photos one of the girls took them but I think she got confused whose camera was whose because she got photos of the other girls dancing but not me. But they are cute pictures anyways.








As we danced they went around and took our picture with one of the dancers so that at the end of the show they could sell us our picture framed as a souvenir. I do have pictures of this transaction. Of course I am a sucker for pictures and bought mine.





I found out later that I paid 300 NT and that another girl only paid 200NT. I am a horrible at bargaining. Oh well maybe she got to keep the profits and I helped her out. The experience was really fun though. It was worth it.

Here are a few more pictures I took before we left that area.





We then got back into the car and drove to NeiDong National Forest and Recreation Area. We hiked up this trail and ate a sack lunch by this gorgeous waterfall. I took several pictures of it because it was just so beautiful. I hope you enjoy them as well.













It was a beautiful sight. We ate our lunch chatted and enjoyed the scenery. We then hiked back down the trail and drove home. The trip home made me a little car sick but I survived. I made it home just in time to meet the kids at the door. It was a fun outing but I was exhausted that night I think I went to bed at 8:30.

Halloween Homework

Ok I am really missing home today. Tomorrow is Halloween and it doesn't feel like it here. I have not bought my numerous bags of candy corn to snack on until I am sick. I have not bought a pumpkin to carve. I have not bought candy to pass out to trick or treaters. I do not have my blow up Frankenstein in my front yard. These are all the things I do around Halloween. I wish I was home. I love the hustle and bustle preparing to go out to trick or treat and then the trick or treators at the door. So since I will not be doing any of this tomorrow, I am giving those of you who read this homework. Go and buy a bag of candy corn, the cheap stuff or the good stuff it doesn't matter. Pour it into a bowl and eat it, not just some of them, all of them and think of me.

Going to the movies

On Saturday we went to see the new High School Musical 3 movie at the department store. Going to the movies here in Taiwan is a much different experience than in the US. We started our adventure with a short walk to the department store. Once we arrived we had to take an elevator to the fourth floor to buy the tickets for the movie. The clerk asked me if I wanted to sit close to the middle or on the aisle because they have assigned seats here. I chose the aisle. We then had to wait until right when the movie was supposed to start to even get into the theater. When it was time we rode the escalator up several flights to the 9th floor where the theater actually was. Of course since we had assigned seats the kids argued over who was going to sit where. The previews started almost immediately and then the movie. Funny thing is I am so used to watching TV with subtitles I hardly noticed them on the big screen but they were there. The movie was cute for that sort of movie you have to really be in the mood for a musical though. Reagan loved it of course.

Helping Keely with Math Homework

Necessity is...

After almost 3 months (can you believe it?) here in Taipei we have discovered just about where everything is that we might need to access: grocery stores, markets, bakeries, restaurants, our doctor's office, a post office, the MRT station, the school/church, etc.

In terms of food, we've either found what we're used to eating back home (i.e. beans), adjusted our recipe just a little bit (i.e. chili), or just do without for now (i.e. BBQ without Korean in front of it).

Because we don't have an oven, we've been thinking that turkey and dressing would fall into the "do without for now" category, but I've probably been spending just a bit too much free cerebral time thinking about the prospect of Thanksgiving coming and going without turkey and dressing.

(Sure, some people here like to go out and eat at the various American establishments for Thanksgiving because it's not a holiday here in Taiwan. But that's just ... wrong. Thanksgiving is as much about the cooking as it is about the eating.)

Our friend lately has been the crock pot when we're not going local. Beans, chili, chicken, etc. So I got to thinking - what is dressing if not a variation on a bread pudding? Why couldn't we cook it in the crock pot? So I thought this weekend we would do a Thanksgiving "dry run" to see if it would be good. After discussing with my mom, she said that my grandma used to brown the chicken and then place it on top of the dressing.

So Amy bought a chicken (I think a turkey might be a tad big for our crock pot) and the stuff to make dressing. By the way, since we don't have an oven to make corn bread, Amy has found a recipe online for cornbread pancakes and has mixed it a little with her mom's recipe. The result is quite good - and a pancake is a pefect way to mix cornbread and beans (pancake on the bottom of the bowl, beans on top).

First step: clean the chicken. We normally buy our chicken from the market, but since we didn't have time to buy one this weekend, Amy bought a whole chicken at the store. After 3 months here, not much surprises me, but when I pulled the chicken out of the bag...

The neck seemed to be a little long for some reason...

Everything about that packaged chicken seemed so Wal-Mart to me that I guess this was kind of a shock. The feet were tucked into the butt - toenails and all.

So I cut the chicken in half and browned - just like my grandma. If this were smell-a-blogger you'd be in heaven right now because it smelled delicious.

Within minutes the peanut gallery started chiming in - "What's that smell? Why are you cooking so late? That smells good!"

Oh - what about the head and the toenails? They made for a fantastic high-speed broth for the stuffing.

Then it all went into the crock pot for a slow cook overnight so that it would be ready for Sunday dinner after church. On Sunday morning we awoke to a heavenly aroma throughout the house. We learned that because the chicken sat on top of the stuffing that we probably didn't need to use as much broth for the dressing because it was really moist.

So far the tasting has been successful. A mix of Amy's family recipes (the stuffing) and my family's cooking heritage (browning the chicken and cooking it on top of the stuffing). I think everybody is going to be high-tailing it out of church today because of lunch.

I'll be sure and let you know how it ends up, but I think we all know the answer to that one.

...the mother of invention.

A Metaphor

First there was a vision. Then there was some action. Following that, there was an adjustment. Now there is resolution.



And given the state of our world right now, we're okay with it.

Interesting observations

I have noticed a few interesting tidbits about my life here in Taiwan. We have been here for almost three months now and so I am beginning to feel like it is home. How do I know this brings me to my first little observation.

Chinese extras:
Have you ever paid attention to the extra people in your dreams? I had a dream last night that honestly I could not tell you what it was about, but I did notice something about the extra people in my dream. They were Chinese. They did not really speak to me but they were there in the background. It is weird don't you think? I never noticed who the extras were until then. I just thought that was kind of interesting. When you dream tonight pay attention to the people in the background what do they look like?

Halloween Costumes:
October is one of my very favorite months because it really begins to be fall and Halloween ends the month. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays because of all the candy you get. On the way to school we pass by a store called Best Buy (not to be confused with Best Buy in the states it is a clothing store). Since the beginning of October they have had many costumes for sale on their sidewalk. Each day seems to bring a brand new stock of costumes at a reasonable price. We stopped by one day and found nothing we were interested in. We stopped by again on Monday and found something the kids liked. I walked away spending roughly $10 US. I could never have been so lucky in the states.

Good Morning:
As you walk into a store here you hear the owner or clerk say something that honestly sounds like "good morning". No matter what time of day you enter the store the greeting is the same. I would always respond back with "good morning" thinking how nice of them to greet me in English. I found out recently that they are not saying "good morning" but in reality they are saying something like welcome to my store. I do not know what the phrase actually is but it is not "good morning". I must say even though I know that is not what they are saying I struggle every time not to respond with "good morning". Crazy American that I am.

Road work:



I love how these fake men are used to signal drivers that road work is being done. It gets the job done don't you think? I have seen them several times but this is my first time I had a camera to take it's picture.

Kayci Was Right

One day Kayci was talking to Grandma and Grandpa about going to Taipei to visit us and she informed that she couldn't because she'd have to learn Spanish. We had a good chuckle at her expense on that one. But as it turns out, she's right:



Sometimes I get a nice little warm feeling from some of the things I see on the shelf here. In addition to the "Spanish Cakes" above, here are some other things that I like.



"Texas Select" Non-Alcoholic Brew. Ah, nothing like a good non-alcoholic malt beverage to remind me of the Lone Star State.



If you had to guess what this is - what would you guess? Well from what I could tell it's in the kid's snack area and it looked like some kind of cracker. Maybe this is what people buy when they have a chubby little kid and they don't want them to have snacks. Think about it - if you were 3 or 4 and you opened up the cabinet to gank a little snack ... RRRrraawr! Suddenly I'm not hunger anymore and now I need to change my pants.



I know I posted this a long time ago, but this is my favorite. I actually had NO idea this was real when I saw Blades of Glory. And even if I did think it was real I would have thought this was literally a horse shampoo!

Help yourself to the Mane n' Tail all you want, but don't even LOOK at the Verticoli...

Dresden, Germany

(Click on the above collage to see all the pictures from my trip.)

This past week I got to spend a week in Germany for a customer event. It was my first trip away from "home" in Taipei and it was an odd feeling flying in and out of my new home airport, which is not in the U.S. for the first time in a long time.

I haven't been to too many places in Europe - well I guess it's all relative as many people haven't been to Europe at all. Germany and Ireland, however, are my favorites so far as they really feel like the "old country". I'd still like to visit Italy and Greece at some point.

I spent a few days in Munich (home to our Germany office) and then flew over to Dresden for the remainder of my time there. Dresden is actually in what was once known as East Germany. Here are some other factoids about Dresden that I found in Wikipedia:

• It is the capital of the state of Saxony
• It was the target of (now) controversial fire-bombings during World War II
• The Kurt Vonnegut novel, Slaughterhouse Five, is based on his witnessing of the World War II bombings in Dresden
• Dresden was originally a slavic settlement founded in the 12th century
• Vladimir Putin was the KGB chief in Dresden from 1985-1990
• The Frauenkirche ("Church of Our Lady") is a Lutheran church that was all but destroyed in World War II but has since been rebuilt (completed in 2005)
• Martin Luther delivered one of the first Protestant sermons there in 1515/1517
• Saxony was the first state to officially introduce the Reformation

All in all it was a good trip. I had no idea that I would have the opportunity to witness such historic buildings so it was a good surprise. Now that I've been reading about Dresden it is very cool to think of how much history has occurred in that little town.

This buff dude flanks the entry-way of the Dresden city gates.



The historic Frauenkirche. It's hard to believe that in 1991 it looked like this. If you look closely at this picture (click on it to see it full size), you can see some of the original bricks (they are darker) and on the left side of this picture you can see the only part of the structure that was still standing.

The original building was completed in 1743. In 1736 the organ was installed and Johann Sebastian Bach gave a recital a few days later.



There is a statue honoring Martin Luther outside the Frauenkirche.



One of the entrances to the Frauenkirche.



This is a view of the backside of the Hofkirche, which is a Roman Catholic cathedral that was completed in 1751.

Mexican Stack here in Taiwan

I know it has been a very long time since I have posted. The whole lice experience really set me back. It definitely gave true meaning to nit picking I would not wish that experience on anyone and I think I can confidently say that we are finished with lice. I have also begun subbing at TAS so I have been busy with that as well. It is definitely nice to be in a classroom again. I do miss teaching full time. I have subbed in a 3rd, 1st, 4th and 5th grade class and I can definitely say 5th is my favorite.

The kids were off on Thursday and Friday for a fall break. Ronny was in Germany so we just stayed close to home. We did spend time with a few friends swimming and playing games and that was fun. We walked to a department store (mall) for lunch yesterday. Gavin had fried chicken, Reagan had a fish plate that included a side of spaghetti and Keely and I had noodles and fried rice. At lunch I asked the kids what they wanted for supper and I heard the groans of we never have food from home anymore. So I told them to tell me something they missed and we would see if we could make it here. Reagan immediately said the Mexican stack.

We left the department store and headed to Wellcome to see if we could find the ingredients for the stack. We were able to find everything but taco seasoning at our local grocery store. As I was cooking the meat I was thinking I would sure like to have some taco seasoning because I am no Ron Clarkson who can just find some spices in the pantry and create perfection. I then remembered that there was a store near us called Wellmans that imports a lot of American foods. I quickly left to see if they had taco seasoning and sure enough they did.

Last night's supper was just like home. In Reagan's words "it hit the spot". We of course ate tons because when you eat Mexican stack it always starts out small and ends up huge. I can forsee this being one of our new regular meals.