Our first visitors!

In October, we welcomed our first visitors to Taiwan! Abbie's parents came to visit for a couple of weeks.

We spent the first week having a holiday together

in the south of the island...

...and then we spent the second week including

them in our usual activities so that they could

better understand our day-to-day life here.

We also spent a day sightseeing in

Taiwan's capital city, Taipei.

We asked them to write a few words reflecting on their time here. Here are some of their impressions:

'Taiwan is both Asian and Western, rural and modern. It has vibrant and beautiful scenery, masses of scooters, and a dazzling array of neon signs... The Taiwanese are a generous and lovely people, and Taiwan feels a safe place (unless you step into the road!)'

It was very special to be able to spend time catching up with them after so long, and introduce them to our life here. In doing so, we realised just how much we like living in Taiwan and the Taiwanese people!

The Night Market

One thing that Taiwan is famous for is its Night Markets. Night Markets sell a variety of food and drink, clothes, accessories, etc. and are very popular with young people. They are busy places with lots of bright lights, sounds, smells and general hustle and bustle and can be found all over Taiwan.

One food that Taiwan is famous for and that can be
found at Night Markets is Stinky Tofu (not 'skllnky'
as the photo suggests!)

Stinky Tofu is bean curd that has

fermented (yummm!) and is so called

because, as you can probably imagine,

it STINKS! It's cooked in a variety of

different ways

Paul being brave and trying the fried
variety! (Actually, it didn't taste too
bad...)

Another famous Taiwanese food that can be found at

Night Markets is Ji Pai

Ji Pai is basically the whole front of a chicken which

is pounded flat, breaded and deep fried...if you can

imagine a giant chicken nugget but crispier on the

outside and juicier on the inside you're pretty close!

And a famous Taiwanese drink that can

be found at Night Markets is Pearl Milk

Tea, also known as Bubble Tea or

Boba Tea

Pearl Milk Tea is iced, sweetened,

milky tea which has chewy tapioca balls

or 'pearls' in it. Sounds strange, and at

first we weren't sure, but we've grown

to love it!

So if you want a fun and interesting evening out in Taiwan, a Night Market is the place to go!

Learning Chinese Mandarin

In a previous post we mentioned that we spend most of our time at language school learning Chinese Mandarin. We've been working through a series of textbooks called 'Chinese Made Easier'. There are five books in the series consisting of seventy chapters in total. On average, each chapter takes about eight class hours to complete (plus some preparation and review time).  

Here's a chapter from one of the textbooks:

Each chapter starts with a story or

dialogue on a particular topic which we

have to read though (notice that we're

still learning how to buy food!)...

 ...then there's a vocabulary list of about thirty new
words relating to that chapter to learn...

...new grammar rules and sentence pattern exercises...

...questions about the story/dialogue and
translation exercises...

...and eight traditional Chinese

characters to memorise (and write -

if we want to!)

After we've completed this series of textbooks we will have only covered the basics - there are plenty more textbooks lined up on our bookshelf, ready and waiting!

And of course, aside from working our way through the textbooks, we also spend time putting theory into practise!

The east of the island

Having done some exploring in the south of the island, we decided that it was time to head east!

We went to a place called Tienxiang,

deep in the mountains

We stayed at the church guest house there

We climbed up to this temple which

was perched on the mountainside...

...walked through mountains...

...valleys...

...caves...

across bridges suspended over gorges,

rivers...

...and waterfalls!

Taiwan is a stunning place!

Paul's first birthday in Taiwan

For his birthday, Paul received this t-shirt:

Enough said!

A day in the life of Paul & Abbie in Taiwan: a video

This is a video that we put together a few months ago. Although it only really shows us going to language school, really that is what most days in our life consist of! Hopefully as you watch it it will help you to get a feel for some of the sights and sounds that have become familiar to us in our everyday life here.

Our first Easter in Taiwan

Apart from amongst Christians, Easter isn't celebrated in Taiwan - so there are no chocolate Easter eggs or hot cross buns to be enjoyed!

These are the Easter eggs that we were given at church on Easter Sunday - real hard boiled chicken eggs with different plastic wrapper designs. Some have Bible verses on them, some have characters like the Easter bunny on them - and some have both!

Abbie's first birthday in Taiwan

It was a happy day indeed :)

(And we're learning that the Taiwanese

present things - flowers, cakes, etc. -

very well!)

One of Abbie's teachers is a year younger than Abbie

and her birthday is only four days after Abbie's

so they celebrated together in class!

The south of the island

We headed back down to the south of the island for

a few days holiday

 We went to the southernmost point...

Us at the southernmost point of Taiwan!

We went in search of a beach with some decent

waves so that Paul could catch a few after months

(or years!) of not being able to go

surfing/bodyboarding...

...and discovered that the Taiwanese like to surf

too! :) 

We also discovered this waterfall which was

actually one of seven that cascaded into seven pools

And enjoyed some time on our favourite beach :)

Lantern Festival

Lantern Festival marks the end of the Chinese New

Year celebrations. Traditional Chinese lanterns are

often seen hanging up. They are red because red is

the lucky colour

We went to the Taiwan Lantern Festival - a lantern

display where we saw lanterns of all shapes and sizes.

These were the closest designs to the traditional

Chinese lanterns

This was one of my favourites :)

There were so many different designs, all contributed

by universities, businesses etc.

Some of them were very impressive!

There was an area particularly aimed at children

This was the centrepiece of the display - a giant horse

lantern - because this year is the year of the horse

We had never seen so many lanterns in our lives!

Our first Chinese New Year

We learnt how to make Chinese stuffed dumplings

(one of the foods traditionally eaten at Chinese New

Year) at the home of a couple of our colleagues

It was a bit fiddly!

The finished dumplings ready to be boiled

Chinese New Year is a time for meeting up with family

and friends, so over the holiday we met up with one of

our colleagues and two of our teachers and visited the

Taichung National Museum of Natural Science and the

Taichung Botanical Gardens