Taipei Temple Trip

 This Saturday we took a bus trip to Taipei with other church members from our English branch and went to the LDS temple. It wasn't our typical Saturday afternoon jaunt to the temple like we used to do back in Utah, but rather a whole day's adventure. Every quarter, our little branch charters an entire bus and each person pays the equivalent of US$12 for the trip. The church funds make up the difference, based on how many people make it (quite a bit in this case). They have to wait until 11 a.m. to leave due to a bunch of the English teachers needing to finish their Saturday morning class instruction. It was a pleasant 3-hour bus ride with Disney DVDs playing the whole time. The bus driver and his wife had a little girl who was up top with us watching the movies, but besides her, no other kids came this time around. The kids were disappointed, but the movies helped drown their sorrows.



This is our first view of Taipei!

That really, really tall building is the "101," the 2nd tallest building in the world! I'd recommend coming to visit us soon and going to see it because rumor has it two other mega skyscrapers are about to be completed and they will beat this one, putting it in 4th place. Not as cool at that point.

 The one freeway rest stop that we had was quite the experience. I've never seen the likes. This place could almost be the destination of a trip rather than just a quick bathroom pullover! It was huge and clean and had all sorts of food places and amenities. There were about 50 toilet stalls (not exaggerating). Theo and I were directed into this special handicapped/family stall that had such features as a toddler-restraint seat, robot toilet/bidet and so-cool-a-little-kid-would-just-have-to-use-it little zebra toilet. I didn't see a baby changing table, but since the floor was relatively clean, we did ok there. At the stop on the way back, a very helpful restroom attendant ushered me to a different building where there was a breastfeeding room complete with a posh baby bed, with a pillow, and water proof mattress for changing diapers. I wish I would have had my camera or phone on me! Theo was so impressed with the accommodations he had a hard time lying still :)

Oh, and did I mention that there was live music for the relaxation and pleasure of the resting travelers? Violinist on the way there, saxophonist on the way back.

 Here is angle Moroni. We learned that he actually is facing West (not East like all the others) because he is looking towards China. Very interesting to think about.

The temple grounds were small and smack dab in the middle of the busy city (you'll see in a bit what I mean, seeing another photo). The boys and I walked around and took pictures for while, then made our way into the adjoining visitor's center / distribution center / institute building / stake center. The visitor center was basically a kiosk with some pamphlets and lovely sister missionaries and the distribution center was closed already, so luckily the Stake center had a gym for the boys to run around in for 2 hours. I had the slight hope of switching in for some baptisms, but that didn't work this time.

 There had just been a reception or something in the gym so with left-over balloons, a few kids hanging around and a wheeled chair-stacker (not to mention the several water dispensers in the hallways with folding paper cups and three choices of temperatures), the boys thought they were in Disney Land :) Also, in typical Taiwanese style, I had the pleasure of a few friendly chitchats with complete strangers who knew English incredibly well.  The 2 hours of waiting flew by.


Below is our church group: 2 senior missionary couples (one who just arrived 5 days prior) 5 English teachers, a young couple who are university students in the International Business program (and she's my private lessons yoga teacher), a long-time Taiwan resident who entertained us with a non-stop conversation all 6 hours of the driving trip, and a new convert from the Philippines who's baptism we attended our 2nd week here and who was having his first time to the temple and to Taipei!

Here is Brother Miller using Ryley as an arm rest. He's a funny, relaxed guy who recently decided the idea of an IronMan tickled his fancy so he gave himself 2 years to train: picked up biking for the first time, has run a few marathons, and polished up on his previous swimming skills. In 2 weeks his grand goal will be realized. He even got sponsored and was given a sweet bike. Very cool story.



Below is what Ryley is taking a picture of. As you can see, the temple is just right there in the middle of it all. It has that blue roof to match the Chinese architecture of the nearby monuments (names of which I forgot).

After our temple time, our bus drove us to a specific area to eat where Brother Miller knew there was a Mexican restaurant nearby (quite the rarity in Taiwan). We wandered around for awhile, asking a friendly, foreign-faced young man if he knew where it was--he did, pointing us in the right direction.

One of my favorite moments of this trip was in one of the narrow alleys where our large group was wondering: with no side-walks (of course) and scooters swerving wherever they pleased, I told Julien he couldn't scamper off ahead but had to hold someone's hand (intending to mean either Ben's or mine). But without skipping a beat he kept scampering to the front of our group and happily grabbed the hand of the senior missionary Elder and didn't even look back. It was cute.

The Mexican food was pretty bad, but given a few more months deprivation of the cuisine, I think we'd come to really appreciate it. To add to Ryan's "firsts" for the day, it was also his first Mexican food. He seemed to like it.

We ended up back at our apartment about 11:30 pm, having had a very nice day :)

My First Afternoon Market!

Theo at the afternoon market

Finally, on my exact 2-month-in-Taiwan anniversary, I made it to my first afternoon market to buy my fresh dinner items. It was awesome!

I just needed my hand held for the first time. These kind ladies I met this week at the IWAT (International Women's Association of Taichung) went with me and showed me the ropes. Rose took my camera and went nuts :)
 

Fresh as they come!...but I haven't reached that level in Taiwan life yet.

Blood sausage, liver and something from the sea

Theo helped choose some good mushrooms from the huge selection

Buying some shuai jiao (pot stickers)

Testing (and not buying) some fried chicken parts...too many bones.

Standing in line at the very popular sushi booth

I practiced how to say "mixed box" the entire line waiting time. Success :)

Learning how to test a passion fruit to find the good ones: you shouldn't feel any movement inside when you shake them.

Michelle and her 2 little girls

Jungle Sweat

 I was once told by an experienced Panamanian jungle tour guide that sweat is a person's best defense in the jungle--after several days of good sweating, there is a "natural" smell that starts to permeate your being and it will help protect you from catching the attention of would-be jungle predators...or maybe it was the attention of the bugs...either way, jungle sweat is very good.

I believe that during our 3-hour hike in the jungle mountains right on the outskirts of Taichung, I may have reached that "several days sweat status" of which he spoke. I didn't know I had it in me. Literally. I didn't know it was possible to sweat so much in such a short amount of time! If you look carefully, you'll notice a small dry spot on my shirt near my left shoulder. Seeing as how this photo was taken at about our half-way point, I guarantee it soon disappeared.





Here's Ryley dripping sweat and replenishing himself with what our friend introduced us to as the Taiwanese Gatorade. Excellent stuff!















Here are Ben and Theo combining their sweating efforts. Please also note my ingenious set-up of a feeding bag for Theo...just like a little horse.

















Julien can out-sweat the rest of us. His hair gets completely drenched (and not only when he's in the jungle) but he never seems phased by the drips that trickle down his face. Amazing.

But backing up a bit--we took this hike in the Dakun mountains just to the east of Taichung City. We went with our friends, the Baclayons (the president of our little English lds branch out here and his two kids)



Here we are at the bottom of the "easiest" hiking trail. 









After living in the desert land of Utah for so long, it still boggles my mind that plants can just grow like this--all on their own.  No one even has to water them!








Notice the bamboo on the left and Ben's happy, smiling face on the right. We labored up these crazy steep steps the entire trail. Why waste time with switch backs? Straight up is fastest, is it not?








This beast is the biggest, non-hairy spider I've ever seen! We saw several of them on webs right next to the trail stairs. They didn't attack and eat any hikers while I was watching, but I wouldn't put it past them!









Ahhh! How peaceful our city looks from up here.













More green beauty.












Gravity helped the down part be easier. Theo's constant meltdown helped the down part be much harder. The poor kid just wanted the privilege to walk. A reasonable request under most circumstances.









Ryley's "tree" pose: I'm going to add it to my yoga workout routine.















When I was 20 years old I saw oranges growing on a tree for the first time in Arizona--it fascinated me. A couple-few-many years later and I now see how the bananas do it :)

Moon Festival Fruit Hat

 Here's the last Moon Festival tradition we tried to take part in: apparently this fruit is a traditional gift for Moon Festival as well (it must ripen at this time of year or something). It's kind of like a green, mild grapefruit--forgot its exact name. But you're supposed to peel it a certain way so that kids can wear the peeling like a hat.  We tried this on our own and felt we may have missed some nuance in the whole technique. We'll definitely need someone to show us how it's really done in time for next year :)

Taiwanese Moon Festival BBQ

 We had the good fortune of an invite to a Moon Festival tradition that's specific to Taiwan: a family/friend BBQ.

Ryley's Chinese tutor, Teacher Sandra (in the Zebra shirt), invited us to join her family on Saturday evening for a BBQ at their home. Her parents own a small home-improvement shop on the ground level of their home and they have a large garage that was perfect for keeping everyone sheltered from the supposed Typhoon rains that never came (school and work were even officially called off on Saturday).

It was so interesting to see how barbequing is done Taiwanese style:

The grills are little and people sit around them and put their own skewers on the rack over the coals. The entire evening centers around grilling your food, skewer by skewer. The guy in the red shirt is a family friend who Sandra said, with a smile, that they always invite because he's a butcher and brings great meat :) We brought some marinated salmon to share--not exactly skewer-friendly, but they made a foil bed for it to cook on and it worked just fine. We also were so proud of ourselves for bringing a box of moon cakes (pineapples cakes, in this case) and successfully navigated the cultural dance of refusal and acceptance of a gift.  Yay for us!


On the plate Sandra is holding, there is a bowl full of clams and mushrooms that were grilled in a little aluminum pan as well as some roasted bamboo that was grilled with its natural "skewer" and which you just peel the outer husk off to eat--loved it!



Here are Ben and Ryley loading up their skewers with sausages and fish balls. We loaded up a few skewers on our own at the beginning, but Sandra's hospitable mother soon took over, constantly bringing us new things to eat. It was hard to say no to anything, but hard to eat it all at the same time.  I had to do one discrete spit-into-a-napkin-and-throw-away move, but that was all.










My plate was always about this full. It made it for a tough balancing act as kids would drop off their glasses for me to hold too.  See the cute shrimp? We are getting good at beheading them.









Teacher Sandra has an amazingly big family: an older brother, Edward--who is an engineer and who Ben enjoyed talking with, she's #2, then her sister who had to work and couldn't come, then twin sisters.  All the unmarried children, including Sandra, still live at home along with the grandparents.


Here is Theo still strapped in, allowing everyone to eat in peace for the first part of the evening. When his "all done" squawks could no longer be ignored, we entered a new phase of the evening called "follow Theo's every move to make sure he doesn't die running into the street, grilling his hand, ingesting rocks or other garage items, or fall from the scooter he insisted on climbing." It was tiring. 



Theo did have the company of 2 other toddlers: Edward's son and Sandra's sister's son/daughter. Not sure on that one. These children were infinitely more subdued in their 2-year-old adventures. It was a comfort to have them there, however, because everyone seemed pretty relaxed with Theo's antics and attentive to his needed blockades at any given moment. This little guy, named Xiao Le, showed Theo a fun chair stacking game...Theo joined in for a few moments, then moved on to more interesting and destructive pursuits. Sighh.

Theo's affectionate hugs for this little one were not particularly warmly received.  But it sure made the adults laugh :)










Here is Sandra's hospitable mother who we couldn't talk with at all with but who was so sweet and even sent us home with a couple 3-ft-long squashes!
















And finally...we can't forget the popular roasted squid. We were so full at this point that Julien was the only one to take a bite and the rest got sent home with us in a doggy bag :)

Our evening ended with another cultural moment on our drive home. Here is Ben pulling a Taiwanese parking move: seeing no parking spaces in front of the desired shop (a pharmacy in this case) he "pulls over" a grand total of about a foot and puts his hazard lights on--et voila, temporary parking spot created!  With us in the car and traffic calmly making their way around us, Ben gets what he needs at the shop and then hops back in. Hazard lights off, turn signal on, and traffic in this lane resumes. And that, folks, is how it is done.