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My Taiwan Adventure
Monday, January 31, 2005
Weekend Adventures
The weekend was quite busy but I'll keep this short - my blogs have been really lengthy up to now, and I know you all don't have time to read the details.
Sun Moon Lake
Saturday I went to the SDA church, enjoyed potluck and made new friends.
I was surprised that not only did they have english speaking people, but one was up front giving her testimony when I walked in! In addition they have a member of the congregation translate the service and broadcast it locally. Which means I was given a walkman to listen to the service in English. Of course the quality of the translation was not perfect, and the local radio station butted in everytime they used their cordless microphone up front, but it was a nice gesture and great thought.
SDA Church in ChangHua
I was invited to the potluck after church and it turns out that the pastor lives in the building and he's invited me to stop by if I ever need help. In addition there are 3 teachers in the school in the building which is sponsored/run by SDA's and all the teachers are nice people. Of course, everyone in Taiwan is my friend right now - it's part of the culture shock curve and I'm aware of that. However, it was good to chat with the people over lunch. I finally had rice here for the first time! It was delicious. There were also deep fried papaya (yum) and all nature of local dishes prepared by the church members. I guess they have a potluck every week.
So the young teachers are a married couple Sarah and Mike who invited me to go hiking with them in the afternoon. I accepted and got my first ride on a scooter in Taiwan. Yikes... I only closed my eyes for the first half of the first ride. The gist here is if it's straight, go as fast as you can and then BRAKE. *l* Actually Sarah complemented me on my balance. Turns out the years on mom & dad's motorcycles have paid off... I'm an accomplished passenger! Mike was napping, so Sarah and I went to the grounds of the local university and had fun chatting and hiking about.
Bridge at University in ChangHua appears in many tourist books.
Later in the day we went for supper at a local Italian place and I met their friend Wu. Wu is very Taiwanese, not Chinese... it's a fine difference which I haven't grasped yet, but most of it has to do with heritage. Everybody was eager to share with me ideas, hints and tips. The most I've gotten is "Mei gwan shi" which is the "no problem" phrase I had mentioned earlier. Supper was nice and I had the BEST ginger tea ever. Served in a beautiful glass teapot so you can see the actual chunks of ginger root floating about in your tea. We topped the night off with a game of ping pong on the roof of Wu's building. I laughed very hard while playing ping pong. The night was a rousing success. Mike and Sarah gave me a foldable bicycle which I can take on the train with me. Though I haven't folded it down yet, the gesture was terribly kind. More kindness from people I have never seen in my life... it is an oddity to me. However, I suspect once I'm established I will do the same for others.
Sunday I went to SunMoon Lake with Jeremy and his boss Phillip. It was a pleasant journey and we stopped in Puli on the way to rest at the local winery. There is little enough to tell. The lake is large and the surrounding roadway very curvy. It reminded me of the Okanagan with it's twisty roads. The only difference here is the locals don't really stay on their side of the line. I was a little motion-sick but not too badly and was glad for the frequent stops on the way.
Sun Moon Lake is a popular destination and originally a retreat for Chang Kai Shek. Very scenic and named for it's shape round on the left with a crescent shape on the right.
Big Leaves At Sun Moon Lake
Lunch at Sun Moon Lake was fish, boiling pork, rice, vegetables and pomello (more spelling errors here I'm sure!). The meal was served on the traditional lazy susan tables and they always put a lot of effort into presentation here in Taiwan. The fish is surved butterflied with eyes, fins and scales intact. I couldn't resist a picture of the fish drinking from it's own serving spoon. This meal cost 600 NT - which works out to $8 cdn per person.
Sunday night we spent over at the girl's apartment here... one of them is leaving town on Tuesday and we are going to go out Monday night, so I'll stay in town one more day. Nothing much to report here, we hung out watched movies and ate pizza. The pizza place was out of crusts (this is apparently pretty common) so we split the 3 pizzas between the 6 of us. The local pizza joint closes at 9 pm here... not the most popular food for the local crowd I guess.
I'm doing laundry this morning (Monday) slept in until noon.... ooops. Thought I'd catch up with the posting and let you all know that I'm glad that you're reading it and following along with my adventures. And oh, I got a phone number finally! Yay. Just have to figure out what the billing is. I called Connie the other day and ended up spending the better part of $6 on the phone. *L* Ah well, I'll settle in soon enough.
More later.
Love T. Destiny
Sunday went to SunMoon lake.
Sun Moon Lake
Saturday I went to the SDA church, enjoyed potluck and made new friends.
I was surprised that not only did they have english speaking people, but one was up front giving her testimony when I walked in! In addition they have a member of the congregation translate the service and broadcast it locally. Which means I was given a walkman to listen to the service in English. Of course the quality of the translation was not perfect, and the local radio station butted in everytime they used their cordless microphone up front, but it was a nice gesture and great thought.
SDA Church in ChangHua
I was invited to the potluck after church and it turns out that the pastor lives in the building and he's invited me to stop by if I ever need help. In addition there are 3 teachers in the school in the building which is sponsored/run by SDA's and all the teachers are nice people. Of course, everyone in Taiwan is my friend right now - it's part of the culture shock curve and I'm aware of that. However, it was good to chat with the people over lunch. I finally had rice here for the first time! It was delicious. There were also deep fried papaya (yum) and all nature of local dishes prepared by the church members. I guess they have a potluck every week.
So the young teachers are a married couple Sarah and Mike who invited me to go hiking with them in the afternoon. I accepted and got my first ride on a scooter in Taiwan. Yikes... I only closed my eyes for the first half of the first ride. The gist here is if it's straight, go as fast as you can and then BRAKE. *l* Actually Sarah complemented me on my balance. Turns out the years on mom & dad's motorcycles have paid off... I'm an accomplished passenger! Mike was napping, so Sarah and I went to the grounds of the local university and had fun chatting and hiking about.
Bridge at University in ChangHua appears in many tourist books.
Later in the day we went for supper at a local Italian place and I met their friend Wu. Wu is very Taiwanese, not Chinese... it's a fine difference which I haven't grasped yet, but most of it has to do with heritage. Everybody was eager to share with me ideas, hints and tips. The most I've gotten is "Mei gwan shi" which is the "no problem" phrase I had mentioned earlier. Supper was nice and I had the BEST ginger tea ever. Served in a beautiful glass teapot so you can see the actual chunks of ginger root floating about in your tea. We topped the night off with a game of ping pong on the roof of Wu's building. I laughed very hard while playing ping pong. The night was a rousing success. Mike and Sarah gave me a foldable bicycle which I can take on the train with me. Though I haven't folded it down yet, the gesture was terribly kind. More kindness from people I have never seen in my life... it is an oddity to me. However, I suspect once I'm established I will do the same for others.
Sunday I went to SunMoon Lake with Jeremy and his boss Phillip. It was a pleasant journey and we stopped in Puli on the way to rest at the local winery. There is little enough to tell. The lake is large and the surrounding roadway very curvy. It reminded me of the Okanagan with it's twisty roads. The only difference here is the locals don't really stay on their side of the line. I was a little motion-sick but not too badly and was glad for the frequent stops on the way.
Sun Moon Lake is a popular destination and originally a retreat for Chang Kai Shek. Very scenic and named for it's shape round on the left with a crescent shape on the right.
Big Leaves At Sun Moon Lake
Lunch at Sun Moon Lake was fish, boiling pork, rice, vegetables and pomello (more spelling errors here I'm sure!). The meal was served on the traditional lazy susan tables and they always put a lot of effort into presentation here in Taiwan. The fish is surved butterflied with eyes, fins and scales intact. I couldn't resist a picture of the fish drinking from it's own serving spoon. This meal cost 600 NT - which works out to $8 cdn per person.
Sunday night we spent over at the girl's apartment here... one of them is leaving town on Tuesday and we are going to go out Monday night, so I'll stay in town one more day. Nothing much to report here, we hung out watched movies and ate pizza. The pizza place was out of crusts (this is apparently pretty common) so we split the 3 pizzas between the 6 of us. The local pizza joint closes at 9 pm here... not the most popular food for the local crowd I guess.
I'm doing laundry this morning (Monday) slept in until noon.... ooops. Thought I'd catch up with the posting and let you all know that I'm glad that you're reading it and following along with my adventures. And oh, I got a phone number finally! Yay. Just have to figure out what the billing is. I called Connie the other day and ended up spending the better part of $6 on the phone. *L* Ah well, I'll settle in soon enough.
More later.
Love T. Destiny
Sunday went to SunMoon lake.
Posted by T. Destiny in Taiwan at 2:59 PM 
