FRIDAY:
Dad got here on Friday and poked his head in my classroom window. "Xiao pengyou hao!" He said. I was happily surprised! He was supposed to get there like an hour later and Gerald would go pick him up, but he just used his Mandarin/ direction skills and just walked from the station to the school! (Yeah, I know he's awesome.) He hung out in my classes, entertaining my kids (especially Eric who could NOT stand still-he just wanted to climb all over him). After my morning classes, we went to got some lunch from A Bao house and a bing sha from our little bing sha place on the corner of the street. (Man, a pork burger and a chocolate banana bing sha has to be the best lunch ever!) I gave my other classes some American goodies that my dad brought up for me: valentines, silly bands, candy hearts and life savers. They were a big hit! After my 6th grade class, I had my High School class, which is only one girl, so we went out to a Japanese place for dinner. Super good. It was a good day!
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| Dad talking to the kids, while Eric waits eagerly for his turn to jump on him |
SATURDAY:
Saturday morning, we went out for an amazing breakfast. Some hot dojan (hot soybean milk), a baozi (soft bread filled with meat and veggies), and a dan bing (like a green onion omelet in a thin tortilla). YUM. After, we went to Taichung to check out the mission home. My dad was so pumped! He a bunch of pictures of the area and the place he stayed his first night on the mission. Then we walked around the Art Museum (it was closed for CNY) and just enjoyed the sights and the amazingly beautiful weather. Later, we tried to go to Lukang. It had been a while since I went last, but I was pretty confident I knew how to get there. Well, we got there alright, but it took a lot longer than I had remembered and it was dark when we got there. On top of that, nothing was going on. I was super bummed out...not necessarily because I really wanted to see Lukang, but because we spent a lot of time and stuff getting there to have to turn around. But we decided to try to go another day.
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| Dad and the mission home in Taichung |
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| Beautiful, isn't it? |
SUNDAY:
This was a pretty cool day! Dad and I decided to go to the Chinese ward near the school rather than my branch in Taichung. He knew there was a sister that served in his mission who went to that ward, Sister Lin. Well, she was apparently out of town wen we got there, but we still enjoyed the meeting (only had 1 meeting for CNY). There was some other information we were also looking for there. My dad's mission friend from home told us that she had a friend, Frances, she taught on the mission that she would like us to visit! We asked around to see if anyone knew her phone number. Well, the people are so amazing, someone got her on the line for us AND my dad's friend who was out of town. We got to talk to both of them. Frances came to the church and we got to talk to her for a while. She is so nice! It was really a lovely visit. Then, Sister Lin invited us to come by and visit later that day, and we did! It was so nice. We looked though all their old mission photos and they talked about all their friends and stories. It was so much fun to listen to my dad speak Chinese with others.
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| With the Lin family |
MONDAY:
Today was another rockin day. Kaitlyn, my dad and I went to Sun Moon Lake. We first stopped in Puli to get some pictures and footage of it to show my dad's friend and old mission comp who served there. We weren't exactly sure where to find a chapel, so my dad started to ask around. We walked into a little food place and my dad asked some of the people sitting in there (I think they were part of the family that ran the place). We ordered a dan bing (it had corn in it!) and they looked up the address. The lady who was making our food told the people we were talking to to drive us there! So they drove us over and we snapped a few pics and they drove us back to the bus station. Such nice people! On an earth nerdy-note: Puli is the epicenter of the big earthquake here in 1999. It was kind of exciting to be there for that reason:) Sun Moon Lake was gorgeous. The lake was huge! We took a boat over to the other side to ride on the cable cars over a hill over to the culture center. It was so beautiful being above looking down on all the trees, giant patches of pink flowers, and then the lake. Awesome. We wandered around the streets, got some fresh squeezed orange juice, and mu gua niu nai (papaya milk), or was it dong gua cha (winter melon tea)?...either way, something delicious. We ran into a bunch of missionaries hanging out on their Pday! That was cool. (It seemed that we saw missionaries everywhere we went this week). We took our time looking around, taking pictures and soaking it all in, then headed back!
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| Some beautiful geology upon entering Puli |
TUESDAY (As my dad called it: Tainan Tuesday):
Today, dad and I took the bullet train down to Tainan. We walked around a big Confucian Temple where there was a bunch of fun things going on in the streets. People were drawing on the sidewalk with sidewalk chalk, selling, buying, performing (there was a couple American guys playing country music! Haha. Oh, and there was a cool mime), and enjoying (yet again) the beautiful weather. We spent all day just walking around! We saw two church buildings, one of which my dad went to on his mission. He was amazed by how much has changed since he was here. So many buildings now fill the giant empty fields that surrounded the building when he was here last. Adventurous day!
WEDNESDAY:
It was nice to sleep in and take it slow on Wednesday. We lounged about in the morning until about noon, and we went over to the old school (the other school's location across the street from the owners of Berhan)
for a lunch with Gerald's wife's family. The way they presented the invitation, it sounded like a low key kind of come in, grab some food , say hi and socialize a bit. What I forgot was that I was in Taiwan and it was Chinese New Year. There were so many people there! Tables with elaborate pink table cloths, wine glasses and plates waited for us. And then the food came. SO MUCH FOOD! When Gerald mentioned ten plus courses, I thought he was joking. He wasn't joking. We started out with a tray full of fish appetizers, sahimi, squid eggs (which didn't quite make sense to me because they looked like jerky), abalone, and duck (okay, that's not fish.). Then came a soup with shrimp, bamboo, and some other things that I never got to ask what they were... It was good, though! Then we got a giant fish that we just all dug our chopsticks into. The next thing we ate was crab. Now, this was no ordinary crab. It was an entire crab. Legs, shell, pinchers and all. It was deep fried to the max-you just ate the whole thing. It hurts me to admit, but it was my favorite thing we ate that day. I had at least one an a half. Dang it was good. Then we had a little stir fry with scallops and veggies. That was pretty good, considering scallops aren't my all time favorite seafood. If the the crab wasn't enough, out came lobster! This little guy wasn't fried, but still really yummy. Then we had another soup with veggies, which was really good. THEN we got a plate with fried pork steaks, and one with spring rolls, rice dumpling-type things, and a bean pastry thing. I was stuffed to the max by the time dessert came! Cake, little jello cups, and chocolate ice cream hearts. Gosh. Definitely on my list of most amazing food experiences ever. After socializing for a little while, we went back to the school for a bit. Then my dad and I went on a bike ride. The bike path was super crowded! But it was still really fun. We went on the bridge to the tunnel through the mountain to Houli. It was such a nice ride! The weather was great (still) on top of everything.
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| a pineapple field! |
THURSDAY:
Sister Lin and her two boys took us over to Lukang! Yay! I love Lukang. Because of CNY, it was super crowded, but still really fun. We didn't dare try to squeeze in the little alleys we like to shop in when we come here, but we went over to the bigger streets and the Oldest Temple in Taiwan. We watched as everyone prayed, burned incense, and hit the big golden gong (we did, too!). Sister Lin got us all a bunch of yummy things to try and showed us places to look and shop and walk around. She is awesome. Such a wonderful guide and friend! I got some Moji. YUM. Love that stuff. We hung out that afternoon, and I started reading The Notebook (which, FYI, is totally different in than the movie. Love the movie, love the book, but besides the main premise, there's not a big similarity). Then we went shopping downtown for a while.
FRIDAY:
Nearing the end! Tried not to think about it. Today, Sister Lin and her two boys came again and took us to the COOLEST day market I have ever been to. It is down town and it is super cheap and really exciting. I will definitely be going back. That was pretty cool. We got lunch at Le Chie's and got bing sha's, then had the best lazy afternoon. Dad updated facebook and we took naps in the lounge. It was awesome. I contemplated taking a walk because the weather was so nice, but the sun shining through the window and the wind blowing in made the big seat I was reading in 100 times more comfortable and I finally gave into the nap urge. It was marvelous. AND I finished The Notebook (they DON'T die in the end.)! When it started to get darker, we went to the night market. To our surprise, our little night market down the street wasn't there! Probably for CNY... So we ventured on down town and hung out there and did some shopping and had the most delicious bing (shaved ice) with chocolate, peanuts, strawberries and sweetened condensed milk. When we got back, it wasn't too late so we popped in Freedom Writers. It was great.
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| Bing in the making |
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| Watch it-Don't drool on your computer, now |
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| Tired, walking through crowds and the smell of stinky tofu, but worth it! |
SATURDAY:
Woke up at 8:30 so we could go back to the yummy breakfast place we went to the week before. It was great, as usual. With the few hours remaining before he had to go, dad packed and then we went for a little bike ride. We rode down to the bike path to Dongshi, but we stopped at some benches along the path and just enjoyed the environment! I love this bike path. I couldn't help but take a video. It was a perfect day! The weather was lovely, birds were chirping, butterflies all over the place, and people passing by, saying hi to us. It was great. We went for one last mu gua niu nai and a chocolate banana bing sha and waited for awesome Sister Lin to come by and take dad to the train station. It had been a awesome, awesome, AWESOME week. Of epic proportions, as I predicted.
After dad left, I plopped myself in my comfy chair in the lounge and started reading The Help. Then I watched Pitch Perfect, The Frog Princess, and a bunch of Psych episodes. It was awesome. I love not doing anything productive and it being okay!!
I spent today, my last day of break, at church, then at home writing this, sending emails, hanging out, eating all my apples for lunch and dinner, and dancing on the roof. I'd say it was a good last day of break. I will definitely never forget this great week! I'm ready to see all my kids again:)
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