The Eastern Journey: 2010

Birthday Party

Sandra's cousin had a birthday party so we hung out in a town called Linkou all day a few Sundays ago. It was pretty fun, we went to a steak house with an all you can eat salad bar, then went back to Sandra's cousin's house and let the dogs attack each other. We then went to a walk in a temple/park area, it was pretty nice and relaxing and Yuan Yuan (Sandra's dog) jumped on us and got us all muddy, that little rat. I call Yuan Yuan 醜小老鼠 (chou xiao lao shu), which translates to something like "Stinkin' little rat". Then we had dinner at Sandra's aunts house and then were on our way....a fun and relaxing Sunday.

Halloween in Taiwan

Here are a couple of my classes dressed up for Halloween week, kind of fun, we went trick-or-treating to other classrooms....the funny thing is, we sing all sorts of Halloween songs that I have never heard of before

...I remember one of my co-teachers asked me to sing a Halloween song and I thought for a second...and was really confused because I don't ever remember singing songs...I only remember saying "trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat". I'm pretty sure they are just made up for the kinds in an ESL program.

Modeling, it's official.

Funny story because I was walking down the street with my girlfriend and two women pulled their scooter and started asking Sandra questions in Chinese...I had no idea what they were talking about until Sandra told me that they wanted to me to model the next day. I agreed, so I became a model overnight...the story has much more detail and gets even funnier, but that is a story for another time...you can ask me in person.

Sandra didn't take too many behind-the-scenes shots, so I only have a few to share...not my best, but, you know, they will do. Haha. Apparently, this makes me an official model. Wow, never expected that to happen!

Camping in Yilan 1/2

We are in the mountains on our way to Yilan, a very beautiful place on the north eastern side of Taiwan.

Camping in Yilan 2/2

...well, it wasn't really camping because we stayed in a lodge, but many Taiwanese people consider this camping because it is high up in the mountains. And it was high, we were basically in a cloud. It was a little cool because it felt like we were in mist for half the time due to the cloud...I wish it would have been sunny. It was still awesome regardless. We went with the same family that we have done many things with (Edward, Grace, Tom and Jerry).

This is me wearing a fruit peel hat. This is us in our lodge room. It was basically one large room, with a bathroom, a TV, Two beds and a loft above with more beds.

We stopped by this trout farm on the way up and got trout cooked about 6 different ways including trout sashimi and trout inners, which were surprisingly very good, mainly due to the tasty sauce they were saturated in.

Looking down at where the action happens...the fish farming!

They had some massive fish...I don't even know what these are, but they are about 4 or 5 feet in length and they had about 10 or 12 of them.

Sandra got baptized!

Sandra got baptized on her birthday, August 29th, it was pretty unique to her to be baptized on her birthday and fun to watch.This is her speaking in front of the church, giving her testimony.

Off to the beach with friends

We went to this cool warf/port area on the western coast of Taiwan, it was pretty fun and the sunset was beautiful.

Edward, Grace, Tom, Jerry (yep, like the cartoon), Sandra and I.

The whole western side of Taiwan is covered with these concrete blocks, someone told me once it was in defense of China, so they won't be able to bring boats to shore easily...not sure exactly.

A trip to the US and Jonathan's wedding 1/4

We flew into Seattle and almost directly getting off the plane decided to go to the infamous "Space Needle". I haven't been up it since I was a small child and it's such an icon in the Pacific Northwest. It was really fun, but it took a very long time to go up and down on a Sunday. We waited for 1/2 hour just to go to the top, which took about 1.5 minutes due to the high speed elevator. Then we spent about 10 or 15 minutes at the top taking pictures and hanging out, but we were sort of on a time schedule so couldn't stay long. Little did we know, there was a huge waiting line to go down too and it took us about 1/2 hour to get into an elevator going down too...WOW! Oh and it wasn't cheap either, now it costs almost US$30 per person to go up. But in hindsight, it was worth it.

A trip to the US and Jonathan's wedding 2/4

We got to spend some time in Portland with Jonathan and Margi, it was a really great time to see them and all of the family...it was also really fun to have all the groomsmen at the same place, it was, as you would say in Chinese, a 好久不見 moment, "long time no see". Definitely a good time.

Breakfast with the groomsmen. It was tasty!

Just hanging out with Jonathan and Margi.

Yep, they are meant for each other, heck, even their mugs say so.

A trip to the US and Jonathan's wedding 3/4

Sandra and I had a blast playing in the sun at the beach. It was a perfect day, so beautiful and not much wind.

Aunt Sherry met us at the coast, it was pretty fun to see her and her pups, Sandra really enjoyed playing with the dogs.

Yep, that is me swimming in the Pacific Ocean, and you know....it wasn't really that cold, it was an amazing day, sunny, hot and very little wind.

A trip to the US and Jonathan's wedding 4/4

One of the things Sandra wanted to do was to lay down and take a nap on the grass in the sun...let's just say that there aren't a lot of parks with nice clean grass in Taiwan...or at least where we live...it was very nice.