Update
You might have noticed that my blog hasn't been updated since January, 2011. A lot has happened since then so I am working on bringing everything up to date. Every week I hope to make a few new posts and photo albums until I catch up. The entries will be dated when they happened and not when I actually wrote them so you might have to dive into the 2011 Archives page or click on the older entries link at the bottom.…
Hualien
I had been to Taroko Gorge in Hualien back in 2010 but Allison had never been so we planned a trip over the long holiday weekend. Taiwan is divided by a massive mountain range running north/south down the center of the island. Hualien is located on the less populated eastern side of Taiwan. Tainan is located on the southwest coast and Taichung, where Allison lived, is on the west coast right in the middle. To get to Hualien you have to take a train or bus either to Taipei around the northern tip of the island or to Kaohsiung and then…
Back to Taichung
I went back to Taichung to visit Allison and Lien for the weekend. We had originally planned to go Water Zorbing at a park but when we got there they told us that the government had shut it down. We were bummed but we decided to make the most of the day. The park is called Fengle Sculpture Park (豐樂雕塑公園). I had never been there before and like the name says, it is full of sculptures. We walked around for awhile and took pictures with the sculptures. We then walked for several hours all over Taichung city. Walking around Taichung with Allison…
Weekend with Lien and Shauntelle
Lien and Shauntelle were going to Kenting for the weekend and they invited me to come tag along with them. We ended up spending a night in Kenting, a night in Kaohsiung, and then a night in Tainan. It was pretty cozy with three people staying in my dorm room size apartment barely big enough for 1 person. They met me in Tainan and then we jumped on the train to Kaohsiung and then on a taxi to Kenting. I was able to negotiate a ridiculously cheap price for the 2 hour taxi ride. Once we arrived, we rented a scooter. The…
Year of the Rabbit – Chinese New Year
Allison and I both had time off for Chinese New Year so she came and stayed with me in Tainan for a week or so. We toured around some sites in Tainan and then spent some time in Kaohsiung. I had only been in Tainan for about a month and haven't really had the chance to go sightseeing. Tainan is an old city originally established by the Dutch East India Company. In 1661 when the Dutch colonists were defeated by Koxinga it became the capital of Taiwan (then under the rule of the Tungning Kingdom and shortly after the Qing Dynasty)…
Hong Kong
My work permit and ARC (Alien Resident Card) had been canceled (or so I thought) and I had to leave the country and come back to renew my Visa. The visa is a multiple entry visa good for 1 year but for only 60 days at a time so I have to leave and come back to get another 60 days. Hong Kong was the closest and cheapest but I was waiting to hear about a job before I made any plans. On Wednesday, January 5th I went for a job interview in Tainan. It was probably the easiest interview I…
New Years in Taipei
I didn't have any previous plans for New Years, but Lien and Allison invited me to join them in Taipei for the New Years celebration. Lien's brother had booked a hotel in the next county over (Taipei has been sold out for ages) and they said I could crash with them. Friday morning at 11:00 all teachers (minus Laura and Whitney who had already left) headed to the bus station. Meg was heading home to the U.S., Libby and Erin were heading to Thailand, Kristi was going to meet some friends in Taichung but came with us to the bus station,…
Kaohsiung 高雄
I have been wanting to go to Kaohsiung for quite a while now but never really had time for it. I was always traveling somewhere else and just passing through the train station. Now Libby, Erin, Katy, and I were going to spend 2 days there. We took a city bus from the train station to the hostel. I’ve mentioned before how nice people here are. We missed the stop but the bus driver was nice enough to make a little detour from his normal route and go back for us. I can’t imagine a city bus in the U.S. turning…
Green Island 綠島 Part II
December 26th Allison, Erin, Katy, Kristi, Libby, Meg, and I went to Green Island to celebrate the end of the semester and one last trip together before everyone went their ways. We had all been looking forward to this trip for quite some time. We went through Eddie from Green Island Adventures, the same guy me and Allison met while scuba diving on Green Island last month. Sunday early afternoon we headed to Taitung which is on the eastern side of the Taiwan. We spent the night at Eddie’s hostel there and ate dinner at a pretty good Thai place with…
Finally, a blog update!
Most of you have probably given up all hope of ever seeing another blog post. For those of you who have stayed, I hope it is worth your while. I have just made 5 new blog posts and uploaded 5 new photo albums for your viewing pleasure. I didn't want to put them all into one gigantic post nor did I want to have them all dated today so I predated them to when they actually happened with a link at the top of each one that contains a link to the others. There is also a link to the…
Taroko National Park 太魯閣國家公園
This is part 5 of a 5 part backpost. Be sure to check out Halloween at Berhan, Alishan National Scenic Area, Scuba on Green Island, and Miaoli. Along with Green Island, Taroko National Park was on my list of must see places in Taiwan. I had heard so much about it, and seen so many amazing pictures that I had to go. As we are wont, we left early Saturday morning for Hualien City 花蓮市. Libby, Erin, and Lien would be joining me on this adventure. Learning from my mistake on Green Island, we bought the train tickets in advance. I guess…
Miaoli 苗栗縣
This is part 4 of a 5 part backpost. Be sure to check out Halloween at Berhan, Alishan National Scenic Area, Scuba on Green Island, and Taroko National Park. On Thursday, November 25th, Thomas took me to Miaoli County 苗栗縣. There was a special promotion from the Taiwan department of Tourism and the buses were free until the end of November. Thomas didn't want to go on the weekend because it was too crowded so I found a sub and took the day off. We took a train Jhunan 竹南, and from there we took a free bus to Nanzhuang 南庄鄉…
Scuba on Green Island 綠島
This is part 3 of a 5 part backpost. Be sure to check out Halloween at Berhan, Alishan National Scenic Area, Miaoli, and Taroko National Park. It reminds me of Hawaii. Even before I moved to Taiwan I was searching the internet to find places to go scuba diving. I head read and heard from several sources that Green Island was the place. I found one website, http://greenislandadventures.com/, and bookmarked it for later. I actually found John from U-Dive in Kenting from the same website as he is business partners with the guy who runs Green Island Adventures. In October, we went with…
Alishan National Scenic Area – 阿里山國家風景區
This is part 2 of a 5 part backpost. Be sure to check out Halloween at Berhan, Scuba on Green Island, Miaoli, and Taroko National Park. Sunrise in Alishan. Lien, Libby, Laura, Erin, Allison and I spent a couple of days in Alishan National Forest 阿里山國家風景區. We left early Saturday (November 6th) morning and headed to Chiayi 嘉義. We were hoping to catch a really cool train that goes through the mountains and has several switch backs where the train has to stop and then reverse up the mountain the other direction, but typhoons had wiped out some of the tracks and…
Halloween at Berhan
This is part 1 of a 5 part backpost. Be sure to check out Alishan National Scenic Area, Scuba on Green Island, Miaoli, and Taroko National Park. The morning Kindergarten kids and all the teachers (none of my kids are pictured). On the 29th we had a little Halloween party for the kids. Like many holidays, Halloween is not something they celebrate here in Taiwan but being an English school and all we had a little celebration. Instead of throwing a huge Christmas and Halloween party every year, Berhan alternates years. This year it is Christmas so we didn't have as big of…
Yamaha XC125ME FNSGTER
My new (to me) Yamaha 125cc scooter! Isn't she purdy? You haven't really experienced Taiwanese culture until you get a scooter. Last Friday I made that step. I have been interested in renting/buying a scooter for awhile now; not because I particularly need a scooter right now (my bicycle gets me most of the places I need/want to go), but because I planned on living in Taiwan for an extended time and it is really convenient. Fenny's (my Chinese teacher and one of the head secretaries here at the school) dad runs a scooter shop where he buys used scooters, fixes…
Sun Moon Lake 日月潭
Yesterday Laura, Kristi, Meg, Erin, and I went to Sun Moon Lake 日月潭. We wanted to get there early so we caught a 7:00 train to Taichung where we would then get on a bus headed to Sun Moon Lake. Kristi drew a colorful and aromatic (the markers are scented) map of how to get from the train station to the bus stop. While we were walking to the bus stop there was a taxi that rolled down his window and was trying to get us to come with him. I told him we weren't interested in my bad Chinese, but…
Hsinchu 新竹市, Wedding in Taichung 台中, and Scuba in Xiǎo Liúqiú 小琉球
I am going to put the last two weeks of adventures into one post. On Saturday, October 2nd, Amy and Cindy (two of the secretaries at the school) invited Allison and me to go to Hsinchu (新竹市) with them. Allison is doing a language exchange with them and they were nice enough to invite me to tag along. We first went to a really interesting glass museum (no pictures were allowed, sorry). It had displays about the history of glass, how it's made, and a ton of things made from glass from everyday items to amazing works of art. I wish…
Bowling and the National Museum of Natural Science
I apologize for not updating my blog for so long. As a treat you get several blog posts and photo albums today. In the future I will attempt to update it more regularly, but no promises. If you haven't already, please read Engagement in Pingtung 屏東市, Scuba in Kenting 墾丁 and Typhoon Fanapi, and Moon festival Kenting trip. On Friday night we all decided to go bowling at the local bowling alley. I have ridden past it on my bike several times, but no one had gone... until now! We wandered in as 9 sunburnt americans (Whitney didn't come) and…
Moon festival Kenting trip
This is the 3rd in a series of pre-dated blog posts. If you haven't already, please read Engagement in Pingtung 屏東市, and Scuba in Kenting 墾丁 and Typhoon Fanapi Wednesday the 22nd was Moon festival, a national holiday, so we all got the day off. Most of us also don't work on Tuesday afternoons (the few who did were able to get a substitute) so we decided to go on a trip to Kenting. Me and Allison had been there a few days before, but the Typhoon kind of messed up our plans. You can call the first trip a scouting…
Scuba in Kenting 墾丁 and Typhoon Fanapi
This is the 2nd in a series of pre-dated blog posts. If you haven't already, please read Engagement in Pingtung 屏東市 When I was applying for this job in Taiwan, and much more after I got the job, I was learning all I could about Taiwan. I assumed since it was a tropical island there should be some good places to go scuba diving. On the second day of training I learned that Allison, one of the other teachers, was also scuba certified. Then and there we made plans that we were going to go scuba diving. We didn't know when…
Engagement in Pingtung 屏東市
I am a bit behind on my blog so I am going to make a few posts that are pre-dated. This is the first of those... I was invited by Thomas to the engagement party of one of Thomas's nephews. It all started with a fortune teller who chose the best time for our journey to begin. It was decided that we would leave at 7:00 am, so bright and early I woke up and went to Thomas's house and then we went to Taichung where we would meet up with the soon-to-be groom and other family members. We ate some…
Guānzǐlǐng 關子嶺
Armed with some printed google maps in Chinese, I and 5 other brave souls set off on a trip across Taiwan to Guānzǐlǐng. I had been nominated leader and tour guide of this adventure. Our journey began at the train station in Fēngyuán 豐原. I have now learned how to buy train tickets in Chinese and I purchased a ticket on the local train 區間車 (the slowest and cheapest) to Chiayi 嘉義. At the train station we ran into Amy, one of the secretaries that works at the school. She was heading to Changhua 彰化 where her parents live. From L-R: Amy,…
Taipei, Dajia River, Diya, and Sanyi
Sorry it has been awhile since I have posted anything. I have been really busy at work teaching, doing lessons plans, and grading homework. This week especially for some reason felt really busy. Maybe it is because I have done so much this week. Today I finally have time to upload pictures and write a post about all the things I have been doing this week. Last Saturday we spent the day in Taipei. The branch chartered a bus and we left Fengyuan around 10:30. The drive took a couple of hours, but the scenery along the way was amazing. Mountains…