Mason's Top 10!

Holy moley guys do I have lots of blogging to catch you up on! In the past 14 days I had not only my dragon boat races and a long weekend, but also one of my longtime friends came to visit, I logged a good 35 miles of walking during a weekend at Taroko Gorge, and I took a quick hop, skip, & a jump and landed in Tokyo for a short trip!

I'll start with Mason and fill you in on the rest over the next couple days (ok, and maybe after a nap or 2 as well!)

Top 10 of Mason's visit {if you know me well at all you probably know of Mason as well lol. We started at St. Pat's in kindergarten together and were in the same class for 9 years though 8th grade and we've stayed close ever since!)

The top 10 of Mason's trip:

{10}

I finished Chinese class!

So this probably isn't on any of Mason's top 10 list for his 10 days here, but it was such a relief / sense of accomplishment / pat on the back / and stress off my back to finish my second class. Am I fluent, haha NOT EVEN CLOSE! Can I introduce myself, tell you a little about me, order food and give my taxi driver directions; heck yes I can!

{9}

Night markets galore

If you've been reading my blog for more than 5 minutes you know that I LOVE food and have fallen head over heals in love with the night markets here in Taiwan. So, naturally, when Mason came to visit, I had to give him the tour...I think we made it to night markets 4 different days while he was here...no shame, no shame!

{8}

Meeting my friends!

It worked out perfectly that Ruth's birthday was during dragon boat weekend and she decided to postpone celebrating until we were all back in town. So, lucky Mason {hmm I don't know if he considers this lucky or not lol} got to spend an evening hanging out with and meeting my little Taiwan family that has helped to make this first year abroad absolutely unforgettable!

{7}

We pigged out for 10 days.   

Haha, if I think I can put down food, Mason beats me, about 10 fold...so needless to say, between the 2 of us, we did some major eating while he was here! Lucky for both of us they only weigh your luggage when you leave and not the rest of you as well! ;) Mason had his list, and I'm not sure that we left any Taiwan dishes on his list un-touched.

{6}

Mason's birthday

Not that this was necessarily in the plans, but it worked out PERFECT! Mason got to spend his 27th birthday here in Taiwan {shout out to Josh for my 1st visitor also having their birthday over here!} Although I had to work Mason did not and decided to spend his day in Taipei. I met him in Taipei after work and we spent the evening climbing Elephant Mountain and stuffing ourselves full with dumplings from Din Tai Fung!

{5}

6th grade graduation (times 2)

My babies are gone. Both Xinfeng and Fu Long held 6th grade graduations while Mason was here. We graduated around 150 students at Xinfeng and 8 from FuLong and I'm not sure it will ever matter how many years you teach, telling your students goodbye at the end of every school year is always an emotional roller coaster.

{4}

Elephant mountain 

As mentioned above, Mason and I climbed Elephant Mountain for his birthday and as always, the views were BREATH-TAKING! They have to be hands down the best views you can get of Taipei and to make matters even better we were there around twilight time giving us an amazing lighting show as the sun slowly slipped behind the buildings.

{3}

Dragon boat races & Dragon boat after party

Due to some unforeseen circumstances I was unable to row on competition day for the dragon boat races, but it worked out for the better as I was able to pick Mason up, watch the races leisurely {aka go home when the temperatures reached 450 degrees!} and take quick naps before heading to the "after party". What a way to throw Mason into Taiwan on his first night here. 100 Taiwanese people in a small rented room eating, drinking, and celebrating to their hearts content and handing out awards to anyone with 2 legs that could blink an eye...needless to say I received an award!

{2}

Hiking Taroko

The way the days worked Mason was only actually here one weekend, BUT, I didn't have school Thursday & Friday prior so we had a 4 day weekend to explore! After the races Thursday we left to Hualian Friday morning and spent our day exploring the city of Hualian. Saturday we headed up to Taroko Gorge where we proceeded to walk 15+ miles through the gorgeous landscape! Sunday we took it easy and found a small Cathedral for mass and then headed to check out the ocean before calling it a day and catching dinner in Taipei at the Shillin Night Market. 

{1}

One of my longest time friends made it to Taiwan

I knew heading to Taiwan for a year that I was guaranteed one visitor; I knew Mason and his love for all things travel would make it out and he didn't prove me wrong. Our 21 years of friendship have literally taken us to the other side of the world and back now! Thanks so much for the visit and the memories Mason!!!

Guest Blog Post - Welcome Josh!

It only took him 5 months lol...but Josh finally finished his movie about his 2 week whirl-wind trip to Taiwan {and first trip out of the US as well as riding on a plane!}. And I might be a little biased, but I have to say his movie didn't turn out too shabby! ;)

If you happened to miss reading about when he was here you can check out our 2 weeks together in Taipei HERE, Hualien HERE, & Kaohsiung HERE!

Enjoy & let me know what you think!

Jiufen Old Street

Wednesday I decided to surprise mom a bit and give her a list of several day trips to choose between...it only took her like 4 years to decide, but eventually she settled on Jiufen Old street, east of Taipei. We headed up to a rainy Taipei Tuesday after school let out and after many failed dinner attempts and crazy angry stomachs...we ended up with a late night McDonalds night for dinner {sorry mom!} We made it a tad more authentic by throwing in a side of green tea/red bean ice cream for desert {I was a fan, mom...not so much!} After dinner we headed back to our luxury hostel [seriously if you're coming to Taipei check this place out!].

Wednesday morning we grabbed a non-traditional Taiwanese breakfast {who am I to deny my mom her new found love of sticky bun dumplings for breakfast?!?!} and hopped on a nearby bus for the nearly hour long drive to Jiufen. One quick nap later, and we were there! :P  [Fun Fact: Jiufen translates to 9 pieces in Chinese as there were 9 families that originally lived in this town]

Climbing off the bus we immediately began soaking in the views. Jiufen is situated part way up a mountain, thus allowing you both breathtaking views of the villages below and the mountains that continue upwards. Win, win in my book! It didn't take us long to make our way to the Old Street in town and quickly get pulled into the steady stream of tourists that run up and down both side of this Japanese-era street. We made quick work of locating several food stands and throughout the day sampled fish balls, red bean "pancakes", taro ice cream rolls, teas, and braised pork {our stomachs were not wanting today!}

We leisurely spent the afternoon checking out the street stands, absorbing the amazing views, munching on snacks, and people watching to our hearts content. Mid afternoon we ventured to the bus stop and grabbed a bus headed to our next attraction that we thought was just over a mile away. Well, a mile on flat, straight Ohio roads and a mile through the windy, mountain roads are 2 very different things...long story short, I'm glad in our 20 minute drive that everyone was able to keep their lunches down!

Finally, we arrived at the Golden Waterfall in Jiufen. Although, sadly!, there is no real gold in this waterfall, the water takes on a golden color due to the amount of heavy metals that are found in its riverbed. No matter the reason though, the falls are beautiful! We hung out at the falls for a bit before we realized there was only one more bus back to civilization the Old Street. We bought some last minute trinkets and snacks before we hopped on one more bus headed towards Taipei and ultimately my house. Today may have been our last outing together while my mom was here, but we had a blast!

Mom Meets the Monkeys

I'm pretty sure 99% of my mom's motives in coming to Taiwan were to go to my monkey friends in Kaohsiung {if you're wondering about the other 1%... 0.5% was to taste Taiwanese food and the other 0.5% was guilt that she should probably come see me!} And, because that's what she wanted, I had to make sure her dreams would come true lol...and what better time to do that than Mother's Day weekend! {talk about a Mother's Day she hopefully never forgets!}

My mom headed to school with me Friday morning to meet my kiddos at FuLong and after lunch with them we headed to the High Speed Rail station (thanks so much to a gracious co-worker for a ride!) and headed down south to Kaohsiung. We arrived to Kaohsiung around 3:30 Friday afternoon and I had the perfect spot in mind to start our weekend. Lotus Pond is about the epitome of everything you could want in a "classic Asian" experience! Pagodas - check! Temple - check! Lotus flowers & dragons - check & double check! Perfect picture opportunities, Chinese gods, and fancy rooftops - check, check, & check! Lotus Pond has it all; and I knew my mom would love it!

We spent a good chuck of time exploring the temples and pagodas before we decided we had better head towards our hostel and check in before the hostel owner got grumpy with us! After checking into our hostel. Once we were all checked in we relaxed for a an hour or so {ok I'll be honest...we enjoyed the AC! It was 90 degrees outside with a heat index over 100 and 85% humidity...hot as heck!} Once we were mobile again we headed back out towards the Liuhe Night Market not too far from our hostel where we sampled teas & feasted on Taiwanese pork sandwiches, fruit milk, crunchy pork buns, and of course...dumplings! When we didn't think our feet could possibly take us any further we dragged ourselves back to our hostel and collapsed with visions of monkeys dancing in our heads! ;)

Saturday morning, of course things won't always go right!, started off with a little public transportation hic-up that we quickly straightened out. So, after an early rise & a hearty 7-eleven breakfast {no judging, I wasn't feeling like navigating Chinese breakfast menus at 8am!} we found ourselves at the base of Shoushan Mountain 壽山 at a large temple overlooking Kaohsiung City. Naturally, after exploring the temple and its twin pagodas for a bit we began our climb....and continued for the next 3 hours!

My mom was lucky! The first time I went I was alone and had to walk a good 45 minutes before my first monkey sighting. The second time when Josh and Tina went along we walked we walked maybe only 20 to 30 minutes before seeing our first little monkey family. My mom, on the other hand, walked less than 10 minutes before a mom and her baby are plopped in the middle of our path. Stopping to check them out several more came down to see who the 2 funky white people were and my mom's camera was working on overdrive! I was pretty sure she was going to call it quits after seeing her first several monkeys, but she kept right on trekking! :P

I got a little mixed up on the trail, but it proved so worth while as we had a great time hiking, we didn't get into any of the steep areas or off the dirt or wood-paved paths, and we were still able to see several medium sized groups of monkeys at different spots as the day wore on! {ok...I just looked it up out of curiosity...apparently it's not a GROUP of monkeys...but a troop of monkeys!..thanks Oxford dictionary for your help!!} 3 hours, lots of sweat, and super empty stomachs later we found ourselves at the base of the mountain where we quickly ate and then headed to our hostel for nice cold showers and afternoon naps!

Once nap time had officially ended we headed to the Pier 2 art center {a reclaimed railroad yard turned into an artist outdoor paradise!} to check it out followed by an amazing Thai dinner filled with more curry than our hearts could handle. And of course, what trip to Kaohsiung wouldn't be complete without a nighttime stroll past the Love River that runs through the city center?! A wonderful night indeed!

Sunday morning we got our tired tushies up for breakfast and then walked to the Holy Rosary Cathedral in town {fun fact its the largest and old in Taiwan and in the top 3 in Asia...not so fun fact...it's actually not that big haha} where we had English mass with people from all corners of the world....LOVE IT!

After mass we walked to the Kaohsiung 85 Sky Tower and holey moley guys...the views were great SPECTACULAR! You could see the city, the ocean, the harbor...they were amazing and we were so glad that we went! {and this was a first for me #winning!} Once we were able to close our jaws from awe we hopped on a pair of rented bikes, biked our booties all over Kaohsiung including stops at the sea-side university, Pier 2 art center, and a steamed bun shop before realizing that it was 6pm and we still had a 2 hour trip home! Goodbye Kaohsiung and Happy Mother's Day to my mommy!

My Mommy's in Taiwan!

So if you don't follow me on any other forms of social media {Shameless shout out! You can check out my Instagram and Facebook here!} and you didn't know my mom made it...well...my mom made it! It might have taken 9 months, lots of convincing, and promises of limited scooter rides, no nasty food, and monkey sightings; but, she's here!

She left Ohio Thursday morning bright and stinkin' early and landed in Taipei Friday evening a little after 6pm Taiwan time (I'll do the math for you...24 hours of flying and 36 hours lost with time change included!) on Friday, April 29. We grabbed some quick food in the airport and headed back for my home in Hsinchu to prepare for sports day Saturday morning. (Funny thing about schools here in Taiwan...they don't mind making you work an occasional Saturday, but you're always compensated for the day...so we got Monday off instead...whatever makes you happy!)

Sports day on Saturday included many waves from the students for my mom and many MANY stares from parents at the 2 lone white people that some didn't even know existed in the town {I'd blow their minds if I told them there was a white guy teaching at the Junior High as well! haha} Guys, I promise I'm not exaggerating this stuff! I had a mother of a first grader follow me around for a good 45 minutes taking numerous pictures of me and telling me over and over again in Chinese how beautiful I was and that she loved my nose...I've said it before...but I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried! After sports day (early release at 1...heck yes!) we headed home, quickly packed our bags, and hopped on the Train for Taipei {mom avoided a scooter ride here and I allowed her to breathe more easily on the local bus!}

We arrived to Taipei a little after 4pm, checked into our hotel, and Tour Guide Tracy got right to work on the extensive list I had been given to accomplish in Taipei {I'll brag for a second and say we covered everything on the list my mom gave me and then some...and we both lived to tell about it!}

First Stop...Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall 

{previous visits HERE & HERE}...with sightings of 101!

Next up...Longshan Temple

{previous visits HERE & HERE}...a must see temple in Taipei!

And finish the night off with...Shillin Night Market

{previous visits HERE, HERE, HERE, & HERE}...clearly I have a problem with night markets!

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Sunday brought along a whole new set of adventures and exhaustion (I can't lie though I love traveling so, it can be quite tiring at times as well!) We slept in a little bit to help cope with our long day the day before {and possibly a previous 24 hour flight around the world!} and then headed out for our day's first adventure...and one that my mom was madly in love with!

First stop of the day...Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall 

{previous visits HERE}...mom was quite smitten with the architecture of the buildings in this area AND that she got her first ever jumping picture in front of the Memorial Hall {it's truly the little things in life!}

After we were starving and caved for a late super late lunch, Hello...Din Tai Fung!

{previous visits HERE & HERE}...I can't lie, I think this restaurant is wonderfully delicious and I will miss it something fierce when I finally leave my island home. Needless to say...mom was also a fan, it's hard not to be!

We finished lunch and headed to...Ximen District...to walk off our food babies & see what we could find!

{previous visit HERE}...I can't say this is a must see in Taipei, but if you are in the area for several days and are wanting to see a different vibe of the city, this up & coming district is the place to be and a great way to spend an afternoon or evening, or in our case, a little of both as the nightlife here proved to be unique in its own right as well!

Last up for the night...Taipei 101 sighting at night!

{previous visits HERE, HERE, & HERE}

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Monday was our last official day to gallivant through Taipei, remember thanks to sports day...no school Monday! And we started off with a bang and ended again way late; tired, but with full bellies and happy smiles!

First up, breakfast...Traditional Taiwanese Cold Peanut Noodles!

These can be bought just about anywhere, but I have been introduced to a popular street-side shop and knew she would love it!

Afterwards, the Taipei must see...Taipei 101!

{previous visits HERE, HERE, & HERE}...You just CAN'T go to Taipei and NOT go into Taipei 101! The building is beautiful, the dampener inside is legendary, the elevator is one of the fastest in the world, and the views are incredible! We spent a good 2 hours checking out the inside of the tower and lucked out when the outside observatory was open for visitors as well! Afterwards we took our grumbly tummies down to the first floor food court and found some delicious noodles for lunch!

There was ONE more item on her to do list...National Palace Museum!

{previous visit HERE}...This museum is incredibly beautiful both inside and out! It is interesting enough the largest (or one of the largest depending on your sources!) collections of ancient imperial Chinese artworks & artifacts in the world and constantly rotating its collections for an ever changing museum display. Needless to say we spent several hours exploring the museum ending with their borrowed exhibit from the Vatican.

The end of the museum sadly also signaled the end of our long weekend in Taipei as we headed back to Hsinchu to prepare for school the following day.

Get Your Travel On ~ Guest Take 2!

Wednesday, January 13

So I'm really starting to get the hang of this tour guide deal over here in Taiwan {shameless shout out...I'd love more visitors...you could be NEXT!!} One of my fellow Ashland graduates & sorority sisters & world traveler decided that she needed a little Asia in her life and I was more than happy to help her fill that void  {don't lie, you know you've got it too!}

So, Caitlin hopped her little hiney on a plane in Brazil where she's currently teaching, flew to Ohio to visit her family for a couple weeks, jetted off to Taiwan for 6 days (easier said than done with snow storms back home) and is on her way to Honduras as we speak for a missions trip (I wonder why I love this girl haha!)

She arrived, finally, late Wednesday night, but being unable to take Thursday off work, she traveled around Taipei Thursday on her own before I met her after work. We grabbed dinner at the Shilin Night Market and gave Caitlin her first real dose of real Taiwanese food (sorry Panda Express...I love you, but it's just not the same!) before heading back to my house in Hsinchu...talk about a late night getting home at almost 1am with school the next day!

No visit is complete without random men helping me to start my scooter and then requesting pictures with us afterwards!

Friday I taught and Caitlin made best friends with Jet Lag and Air Mattress at my house haha. After school I was helping with an elementary language competition and Caitlin tagged along for the experience. We sampled some dumplings for dinner, walked around town for a while, and called it a night.

Saturday we got to town on Caitlin's bucket list! First I wanted to check out the polling station new my house to see how things were going with the presidential election here {yes I'm nosy!} We waved hello as we passed (with Caitlin thrown on the back of my scooter) as we headed out of town towards the mangroves. On the way we stopped at the small local temple around the corner from my house as well as a larger one on the outskirts of town  to make sure Caitlin had [visit temple] appropriately checked off her list! Once we had checked out the temples, determined our futures, and breathed in our fair share of incense fumes we headed out a little farther to the mangroves. Caitlin was as mesmerized as I was the first time I found them...I'm telling you guys, these things are beautiful!

After our quick morning tour of my town...and of course some 7-eleven goodies along the way, we went home, grabbed our things and hopped on the train headed for Taipei...more bucket list items awaited us! First stop, Longshan Temple! Although I've been here before, I still love to see this amazing temple and learn a little  more and see a little more each time I visit...definitely a must see in Taipei! After the temple we decided  it was time for dinner {another reason I love this girl...she's always ready to eat!} On our way to dinner we  stumbled upon a shop packed full with decorations for Chinese New Year. Oh my goodness, I had never seen so much red/yellow/monkeys/lanterns shoved  into such a tight space before...a  little overwhelming but still fun to check out!

Longshan Temple - Taipei

We finally made it to our restaurant (I love to walk from place to place in Taipei  when they aren't super far instead of the subway to to get a better look at all of it's nooks and crannies!) and to be honest, it was a pretty crappy experience. Taiwan loves all things cutesy and themed, so what better place than Taipei to build The Modern Toilet?! I'm not joking...they have a restaurant themed around toilets! Their sign is a giant commode, the menus are in the shape of poop, the food comes in its own private toilet, and the included desert...chocolate ice cream in a squatty potty...yep they went there! I'm not sure I've ever  laughed so hard while eating at a restaurant before! Needless to say my  green curry looked quite questionable served in a toilet with a side of fake poop!

After dinner we headed back to Shilin Market for a couple things Caitlin wanted to pick up, and spent our evening checking out the vendors, food stands, and artisans at the market.

Sunday morning we woke up to rain...of  course, the day we had planned to be outside all day it would rain. And not just a few sprinkles here and there, but like the heavens opened up type of rain...just great. Have no fear, 7-eleven is here! A quick dash across the street to good ole' 7-eleven not  only provided us with our breakfast for the day, but also some super attractive rain ponchos and rubber flipflops for myself...now we were ready to roll! We hopped on a tourist bus  in Taipei and headed north to Yehliu Geopark to checkout what the park & rain had to offer us. The weather wasn't near as nice as last time Tina and I went up, but some things surprisingly stood out more in the rain than when it was dry, so it was fun to see it in both types of weather. While we were there the rain decided it was done for a while and it gave us time to head out further on the peninsula than where most people stopped to turn around and we were able  to explore some less visited paths and caves near the tip. OF COURSE as we are ready to catch the bus home the rain begins to come down with a lovely vengeance so we are a tad wet by the time we catch the bus, but we made it back to Taipei safe {and eventually dry!} rode the HSR home (another bucket list item for Caitlin) and crashed hard with the thought of school early the next day.

Monday morning, with the jet lag behind her, Caitlin came to school with me to see what we were all about here in Taiwan (and to help us write letters to our pen pals back home!) After school we headed to the day market in Hsinchu for dinner & Caitlin's first taste of mochi (she was not a fan!) and one last scooter ride before she had to leave Tuesday morning to more  adventures and warmer weather...until next time Caitlin...Taiwan is waiting!

Check out Caitlin's blog and her posts about her time in Taiwan! {I'll be honest, her posts on Taiwan are much better than my one mushed together post...darn you Thailand & winter break!}

Josh, meet monkey...monkey, meet Josh!

You know that fuzzy warm feeling you get inside when you introduce friends from 2 different instances in your life and the 3 of you have a great time together and all in life seems well...yeah, that's kind of what it felt like to introduce Josh to my monkey friends in Kaohsiung!

I was supposed to work Christmas day {perks of teaching in Asia right!} but rearranged my schedule so I taught all my classes in the morning and asked for the afternoon off (you've got to take what you can get!) But the afternoon off meant that Josh and I could partake in the ever classy & traditional 7-11 Christmas luncheon as well as get an early head start on the almost 2 hour trip to Kaohsiung (sidenote here: kudos to me, this was the first time I drove my scooter to the High Speed Rail station...yay me!)

7-11 Christmas lunch! Seaweed chips, coffee, pork sticky bun, Japanese rice cake, sweet potato, tea eggs, & yogurt drink...HELLO Taiwan!

Hello Gorgeous Gorges...and food out the Wazoo!

One of the top travel to locations in Taiwan is the gorges in Taroko nestled in the mountains on the eastern side of the country in Hualien County. This also happens to be one of the popular locations in Taiwan that I have yet to travel to...thank goodness for willing guinea pigs...umm I mean Josh!

Hualien County

Although Taiwan is a teeny little country  {for all my Ohio readers, it's only like 1/3 the size of Ohio!} it takes FOREVER to cross from one coast to the next due to the lovely mountains that run through the middle of the country. Sooo, Josh and I left my house around 4:30 Friday afternoon & hopped on the slow train headed for Taipei where we grabbed dinner and got on the 7:30 train to Hualien. We didn't arrive in Hualien until almost 9:30 with a solid 3.5 hours of travel under our belts already! Lucky for us though, one of my co-teachers is from Hualien and offered to tour us around for the weekend, so he picked us up at the train station and took us to our bed and breakfast {ok I can't lie....we stopped for pork rice & soup on the way there lol}.

--- --- Saturday, December 19, 2015 --- --- ---  ---  ---  --- ---

We woke up Saturday morning, grabbed some quick breakfast and enjoyed our breakfast during our almost hour ride to Taroko Gorge. Once we got to the gorge we checked some maps and decided that we we start our hike at the farthest point from the visitors center where we were and work our way back...hello another 45 minute bus ride!

When we finally got off the bus we were a bit disoriented & had to stop for directions and a generous gift of hard hats lol! Along the way we quickly discovered that although the map claimed 40 minutes each way to the cave we were headed to, that was taking into consideration that we drove the first half of the trip...not our case! About an hour and 15 minutes later, we made it {although side note, we ran into a Brazilian hiker who told us that in his 3 days at Taroko, the hike we were doing was his favorite...SCORE!} The trail to Baiyang Waterfall consisted of 7 tunnels (like bring a flash light because  you can't see your hand 2 inches from your face type of tunnels), amazing views, and a waterfall curtain inside a cave at the end.

We hiked and hiked and hiked, and finally made it to the end...Oh my goodness...I loved it! It was about this point that we were thankful for our $1USD rain ponchos, not necessarily for the rain, but for the waterfall! We took off our shoes and socks, rolled up our pant legs, donned our beautiful ponchos and went for it! The floor of the cave had 6-12 inches of water in it and along the one side of the cave was a very narrow rock shelf that we could walk along that was slightly dried (only a few inches of water haha). Towards the middle of the cave though was a waterfall curtain pouring from the ceiling of the cave EVERYWHERE! {side note: this may have been where my school-girl giggling ensued!} Needless to say, if you ever find yourself in Taroko...the Baiyang Waterfall is a must! ;)

We spent a good 3.5 hours total on this hike, so by the time we reached the road again there wasn't much daylight time, or shuttle buses, left (thank you Taiwan 5:30pm year round sunset!) We hopped on the next bus still unsure of what to do, and then the heavens opened...hello downpour...so we did what any sensible person would do...we headed one for one last hike; Swallows Grotto. This trail followed closely along a winding road to the left, and a steep drop to the gorge on the right and though we had on our all-too-flattering, bright, yellow, plastic, rain ponchos, the views were amazing and we were glad to get in one last hike of the day. Although...we were quite happy {and soggy} when our bus finally pulled around the corner allowing us an hour nap on the way home!

We got back to Hualien & met my co-teacher Ben again who helped us rent a scooter for the next 24 hour and then we began our 2 day personal food tour of Hualien! Having grown up in Hualien, Ben knew which night markets to take us to, what street stands had the best noodles, and exactly where to get the best bubble teas in town...I can't lie...we definitely went to sleep that night with our bellies happy and full!

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Waking up Sunday morning we didn't have any concrete plans until noon, so Josh and I scootered our way around town checking out several morning markets, sampling some local coffees & teas, and generally enjoying the morning hustle and bustle in Hualien. Around noon we met up with Ben again for round 2 of our "how much Hualien food can you fit inside you at one time competition" {I realize we may have been the only competitors in this "competition" but even if there had been 100 other people involved, I'm still confidant Josh and I would have won lol}. Dumplings, fried rice, noodles, coffin bread, black sugar bubble tea, sticky buns, sugar thread sesame balls, green onion pancakes, dried sweet bread, taro cakes...oh my goodness I'm sure I missed a few...but you get the picture...SO MUCH FOOD!

In the midst of our whirlwind  food tour we also drove out to the ocean for some spectacular views of the blue waters, mountain peaks, and black pebbled beaches. But alas, all good things come to an end, so around 5:30 we had to catch our train back to Taipei, find some Mexican food for dinner there {only my 4th time in 5 months :( } and then take a nice long nap during the train from Taipei to Hsinchu before finally calling our long weekend a wrap!

My First Visitor!

Well, the man-friend made it!

I left RIGHT after school Friday, essentially flew to the train station, hopped on the High Speed Rail....and then waited in the airport for over an hour (that's life isn't it! lol) until I finally saw him!

The man-friend {ok he's got a name...it's Josh}...Josh is (was) a first time traveler. No planes, no new countries, no airports...like baby fresh...but he made it all by his lonesome  and I'm so happy for him! You know it's nothing like going out with a bang saying let's choose our first country to visit...oh, all the way over in ASIA! haha

He came armed with his luggage and his wishlist of places to visit in Taipei, and as a  first time tour guide :P I don't think I did too shabby!

--- FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11--- --- --- --- --- ---