New Years, Mud Volcanoes and Temples, Oh my!

Well, with another short 3-day week behind us we were ready to set out and celebrate New Years, Taiwan Style (whatever that might mean).

New Years Eve found us in Hsinchu in a crowd of hundreds of Taiwanese people anxiously awaiting the New Years. We weren't in the crowd long before a friend of ours who lived nearby suggested we go up to the roof of their apartment building to watch the chaos - ah-hem, I mean festivities. So, there we were, the only ones on the roof - everybody else in Hsinchu was in the crowd - wondering why isn't anybody else up here? Of course, Taiwanese love to be where the people are whereas our natural inclination is to get away from the crowd.

So, there we were, making sure we knew how to count backwards from 10 in Chinese, when all of a sudden the countdown was upon us. Zero came, there was a dull cheer from the crowd below and a louder one from us on the roof and then the fireworks started. I think that different places in the city must compete for the best fireworks show because we literally had about fifteen different ones going off all around us that we had a perfect view of from our spot on the roof. A pretty memorable new years, actually. Sadly, we have no pictures as we both forgot our cameras. : (

We had much debated about what to do with the following days off and had settled on a scooter trip down to some hot springs. But, with the onset of freezing temperatures and wind, we decided on a change of plans. We hopped on the HSR (High Speed Rail) and within an hour and a half were in the southern city of Kaohsiung where we met up with some friends who live there. We also had some friends come down from Taipei so there were six of us total.

That night found us wandering around the city and playing some good 'ol Guitar Hero and Wii Sports. Here is Luke and me duking it out on Wii Boxing.
And, here is Luke on the guitar. What can I say...the man takes his Guitar Hero seriously. ; )
The next day we headed north to the city of Tainan. It is a former capital and has a wealth of temples and history. Here are a few pictures:
Also, we stopped in at a coffee shop called "The Narrow Door." See why?
After a leisurely morning the next day, we were back at it again with a trip to the mud volcanoes. What is a mud volcano, you ask? Pretty much one of the weirdest things you've ever seen.
Yup, that's it. A volcano formed from mud bubbling out of it. Surprisingly amusing, but you wouldn't know it from looking at the picture. This shoe lost its person. Mine almost met the same muddy fate.
And, here are the boys of our group, tempting the mud gods by throwing stuff in the volcano. Boys will be boys...
Here is a video, though it may be boring. There's my disclaimer, so don't go accusing me of uploading lame videos. ; )


Next up was Foguanshan...the mecca for Buddhism in southern Taiwan. But, oops...along the way we got distracted. Here is another fountain/temple/shrine thingy we found.
Dudesy was hard at work....I don't think he so much as stirred the whole time we were there.
So, with that detour completed, on to Foguanshan!

There was a 50 meter high buddha surrounded by 480 smaller buddhas...
So pretty!The entire complex was enormous, but we only had time to see the big buddha and the main shrine. Here is the main shrine...
It was breathtaking...
There must have been 10,000 of these in every space, on every wall.
So, that about concludes our New Years trip to Kaohsiung. But, just for good measure....here are the boys of what was our little scooter gang that weekend...

A Taroko Christmas

As you have seen, Christmas has been a unique experience for us here. We spent the week of Christmas teaching our kindergartners about the finer points of the holiday (A fat bearded guy that breaks into your house at night, flying animals, and cookies). On Christmas Eve we put on an event for the kids that was quite a bit more stressful than we were ready for. The main cause of the stress was the decision to have each class make a batch of Christmas cookies. Sounds awesome right?!

Well people in Taiwan don't bake. By "don't bake" I mean they don't own ovens. That's right, the kitchen for the kindergarten does not include an oven --or cookie sheets for that matter. All of this was known about to a certain extent, but the reality really hit home when we were sitting, huddled around a large toaster oven in the music room praying that our cookies would somehow cook evenly and not stick to the pans...pans that some of the teachers even lined with drawing paper...

Needless to say, my younger class had never even seen cookie dough before so the experience was extremely meaningful to them. So meaningful in fact that when I told them the cookies were broken due to sticking many of them (12 out of 18) started to cry. Yeah...merry Christmas. The catastrophe was averted however when I let them taste the crumbs of the destroyed cookies and those frowns were turned upside down.

So after a very long day (2 kindergarten Christmas events and an evening class) Katie and I were off on the scooter racing to catch an English candle light Christmas service at a local church. A long story short, we drove through Hsinchu managed to find the church but didn't manage to see any kind of service involving candles or English. We were a little bummed, but that is the way it goes here sometimes. Somethings go off without a hitch and other times you find yourself out in the cold in a part of town you have never seen before.

We got home a bit late but we were still SO excited for Christmas. We managed to get Christmas day and the day after off giving us a four-day weekend.

We woke up Christmas morning to some wonderful presents and a nice gourmet french toast breakfast. Thank you to everyone who sent us gifts...you have no idea how much they meant to us.

After a nice peaceful morning we packed our backpack and made our way toward the one of the most famous sites in all of Taiwan: Taroko Gorge.

We arrived Thursday night at our hotel and were so pleased with how kind the staff was and how non-boardlike the bed felt (our bed at home is like sleeping on an IKEA kitchen table).

The next day we hopped on a rented scooter and into the gorge. Lots has been written on the gorge, most things describe its unique geological blah, blah and simply how beautiful it is. All of that is true. I don't have much to say about it other than we stopped very often with our cameras out and our jaws dropping. It is something to see if you ever have the chance...here are a few pictures that don't really do the place justice.

Here is one of the more well-known sites: The Eternal Spring Shrine

And here is the two thousand foot cliff above it...

Here is a close up of the Shrine:
Here are a few of various cliffs throughout:
So I think the red flags mean, "Stay off the bridge!"
Probably because it is really...really...really high...oh yeah and old and rickety (No worries mom and dad...we had an engineer come to check the structural integrity of the bridge...)
(wait...I'm not an engineer...)
Anyway, at the end of the gorge was this small town with a shrine built into the mountainside.
Here is a nice picture that Katie took:
One of the finer notes on traversing through the gorge is the narrow roads and the ever-present Taiwanese tour bus. This is why we recommend taking a scooter rather than a car...just in case there is a huge tour bus charging through a very narrow tunnel and it manages to stop all the traffic coming from the other direction. Then, each car must try to maneuver around and by the bus--which can take a very, very long time. We just drove around and through all this.
Note the car trying to get by the bus...haha.

Building the road through the gorge was quite an engineering feat. It was really something driving over the bridges and through all the tunnels trying to imagine how long it must have taken and how much dynamite it took.
...and when the dust settles at the end of the day, all that's left is the exhaust in the air, the love in your heart, and a man with his scooter.

Deck the Harrs...Christmas in Taiwan

Coming to Taiwan, we knew that we would be faced with certain cultural challenges. That is to say, there are certain cultural "givens" in the U.S. that no longer apply to the Taiwan setting. A good example of this is Christmas. In the U.S. the Christmas season usually begins sometime during November and officially after Thanksgiving. Those of us who have spent time in the States know it is coming, we expect it, we feel it in our bones...though the sound of Christmas carols in November may feel a bit early, or like some sort of subliminal message encouraging you to buy something for good ole aunt what's her name, by the second week you know the season has come. All the lights, the songs, the decorations...they may seem like overkill or "commercial"...the truth is, they are part of the culture of Christmas.

In Taiwan they do recognize Christmas. That is to say, there are lights, decorations and even Christmas carols. However, the lights are usually up all year long (as well as Christmas trees in some places) and the carols are...not quite the same. Imagine that you are in a shop looking for a gift for a loved one. You need a push...just a small one, something that will lead your mind away from yourself and into the mindset of shopping for someone else. What you need is a Christmas carol...an old favorite...your ears perk up when you hear familiar notes sounding over the store's PA system. Then...there is a turn, a rather unpleasant one. Yes, in fact that is "Joy to the World" but is that a synthesizer beat? and wait...who is singing this...do they know the words or are they just mumbling something...and yes, it is a medley...a song joined to another by the strong dance beat..."We wish you a melly Chlistmas!"

So that happened at the High Mart last week as Katie and I were shopping for one another. At first it was funny...but the CD was on a loop and after the third or fourth time through (it was about 8 minutes long) we had to leave. We missed Christmas in America. So family and friends, when you read this please know we miss you!

We decided that the first week of December would be the beginning of the Christmas season for us. So when that first weekend came we realized that we needed to decorate our humble apartment to signify the beginning of the season...what we needed was a tree.

So we set out into Hsinchu with a song in our hearts and determination on our faces. Yes...we would find that perfect tree, even if it cost us $2.00. After some considerable effort we managed to find a large cardboard box in front of a store. There among the other imitations lay the one we were looking for: our Taiwan Christmas tree. After some real haggling with the owner, my superior bargaining skills won out and we walked away with a steal and the perfect tree. After fastening it securely to our scooter (and picking out some other ornatments fitting for such a prize) we began the perilous drive home.

Here is the tree tied to the back. Yes...that is a pink plastic bag holding it on...
Here is Katie with the tree on our scooter just moments after our arrival home...t'was a wonderful day!
I was faced then with the challenge that countless other "men of the house" have faced over many a Christmas: How to get the tree through the door, into the elevator, out of the elevator and into my living room. Good thing I am obsecenely strong, handsome and a genius (especially when it involves the physics of transporting Christmas trees across cities, through hallways, into elevators, etc...).

Here are I am carrying the tree effortlessly into our humbly waiting livingroom.
(In case you are wondering...the statement on my shirt comes in the form of a rhetorical question: When the beloved bangbangtang snatched, very angry? Yeah...)

With the tree triumphantly placed in the corner by the window, we proceeded to turn up the Christmas music and then went into a decorating frenzy. This included, but was not limited to cutting our own snowflakes and placing them on the windows as well as the forming of our own Christmas star for the top of the tree. Also, we managed to find some stockings that tied the entire process together in a nice red Christmas bow:

All sarcasm aside, we have done our best to make it feel like Christmas in our home here. The most difficult part has not been the decorating or the music, but just being away from home. Thank you so much to all who sent us gifts...they are all neatly placed under our tree.
Please know that we do miss you all.

The truth is this has been a good reminder of what Christmas is and how we are all joined together by it: That God so loved us all, He did something that only He could do...He came in Jesus Christ, to live the life that we could not, and then to die a death we deserve only to be resurrected so that we might be able to be called children of God.

That being said, "Merry Christmas to All from us in Taiwan!"