Tuesday's Taiwan-ism {Calendars}

I never thought something that I learned how to use in kindergarten and first grade could prove to be such a crazy thing here some days. It's easy to point fingers though when they are juggling no less than 3...yes I said THREE calendars in their day to day lives.

Please let me be the first to tell you that I didn't even know that 3 calendars  existed lol.

1.  

The western calendar or Gregorian Calendar {or what we would simply call...a calendar} - This is by far the least used calendar here in Taiwan although it's what I use when I'm here! (I promise I'm not being stubborn! You'll see it's easy to flip back and forth here.)

For instance, today's date is Tuesday, November 11, 2015 && my birthday is January 11, 1990

2. 

The Taiwanese Calendar or Minguo Calendar - This is the most commonly used and official calendar of Taiwan. This means that although you can find calendars that fit description #1, all legal papers, official documents, and general day-to-day life events use this calendar. While the months and days are the same as the Gregorian Calendar {see I told you it was easy to flip-flop!} the year follows the pattern of the number of years since the start of the Republic of China (ROC) commonly known as Taiwan. When Sun Yat-sen became the first president of Taiwan (in our year 1911 or 104 years ago) he ordered that the year be declared the first year of the ROC and thus the calendars begin at year 1 of the Republic. Essentially, you always subtract 1911 from whatever the western year is!

For instance, today's date is Tuesday, November 11, 104  && my birthday is January 11, 79

3.

The Lunar Calendar - This calendar, although not used for their day-to-day lives, is also extremely common in Taiwan as a large majority of their holidays revolve around this calendar. I personally have trouble understanding all the logisitics of this calendar and simply know that it is the second date (usually smaller) date posted on all calendars in Taiwan! This calendar fluctuates from year to year and its months are aligned with astronomical dates and happenings and the cycles of the moon.

For instance, today's date is September, 23, YiWei && my birthday is December 15, JiSi

{quickly figuring out why we don't use this one all the time!}

Check out this website and learn your Lunar Calendar birthday!

Sun Moon Lake...A Place of Beauty

Apparently I just need to sit at home and hibernate some weekend so that when I type a blog post on Monday it's actually for the weekend that I just finished instead of the week before!

---------------- Saturday & Sunday, October 31 & November 1, 2015 ----------------

Like always I have nothing planned for the weekend and then last minute we scramble to put our plans together...so, yet again!  

One of the top travel to destinations in Taiwan is Sun Moon Lake in Nantou County. {Fun fact, Nantou County is the only county in Taiwan that is landlocked or completely surrounded by land and has no points touching the ocean!} Needless to say, neither Tina nor I had ever visited and thought that this  weekend looked like the perfect time to check it out! (side note, I'm so glad we usually don't look at the weather BEFORE  planning our trips! 60% rain proved to be false and it was gorgeous out!)

We set out bright and early Saturday morning, well at least I did & picked up Tina on the way, and made it to Taichung (this is the city with the closest train station to Sun Moon Lake) by midmorning & located a local train headed for the Lake and settled in....for 2 hours (nap time!!!)

We arrived to Sun Moon Lake around 1ish and immediately set out for lunch...a quick boat ride across the lake provided us with all the day market treats we could handle including this sandwich with pork, cucumbers, & super fluffy bread! 

We spent a majority of the afternoon walking around, soaking in the beautiful sights, treats & people. 

The views here we beautiful!

What's That??

Quick post!

Issues that I didn't even know EXISTED before moving to Taiwan. I go to the bakery to buy a piece of bread (you know because some people frown at eating a whole tub of peanut butter with a spoon) and bring it home for breakfast...it looked so innocent! Only to open it up to find it filled with red beans and some type of foamy custard... I'm not thinking they play well with peanut butter ☹  All I'm saying is a warning would have been nice! Haha

Country Scooter Drive!

Finally! I thought I would never get this video! To say I had some hiccups while filming this is an understatement, but finally take #837 worked!

This is my 10 minute (about 4.5 mile) drive from my apartment to my teeny tiny school Fu Long out in the country. I teach there Wednesdays and Friday so I only make this drive 2 times a week, but I think the  scenery somedays is breathtaking!

This video is sped up to about 2x's the normal speed, but I drive between 50 & 60 kph (or between 31 & 37 mph). It doesn't sound that fast, but with air, bugs, dirt, and the thought of the pavement hitting you that fast, it's plenty fast....oh and the speed limit as well haha. 

Hope you enjoy this as much as I did filming it! :)

Rice Fields & Mangroves!

So it's not exageration to say that for the last 2 {almost 3...eeek!} months that I have lived here I have said more times than I can count that I want to go check out the rice fields. Weird sounding...maybe...but let me tell you, they are soo beautiful you would understand if you could see them yourself!

Now if you know me well, you may think I am sick in the head for writing this (if not a gentle disclaimer, I hate car rides, I don't like driving, I don't like having to be the passenger, planes, and trains, and everything else were made for a good reason!). Last weekend, I, Tracy, went for a joy-ride...JUST FOR THE HECK OF IT {clearly this whole scooter deal has affected me more than what I would have thought haha} and of course I had to stop and take some pictures once I felt that I was sufficiently "in the middle of nowhere!"

Ummmm, so pretty gorgeous, these pictures don't even begin to do it justice!

A little panoramic action so you can get a feel of where I was at!

Close up of the rice growing {if anyone would like to explain harvesting this to me, I'm all ears!}