NOTE: This post should have been written almost a month ago now. I meant to write it within the first week after we visited Yangmingshan, but I was still feeling burned out about writing anything after finishing all of our stuff for grad school in December. However, that’s no excuse for it being almost a month late. :D Anyway, here it goes – better late than never, I hope!

The week of Jan. 14th – 21st was almost like a week long celebration for us. The 14th marked not only our one-year anniversary of being in Taiwan, but also my birthday. Joel made me breakfast and snuck out to the local wet market early in the morning to buy me a dozen gorgeous red roses. Later that night, we also ate lots of delicious food at our favorite all-you-can-eat hot pot and barbeque place with Yang Mama, Mingdaw, Zhi-ling, and John (our Canadian boss). We even tried barbequing some snails…though they turned out a little tough to chew…and very hard to pry out of the shells with chopsticks. :D

One of the coolest things we did that week was take a trip to the northern part of Taipei with our friends Charles and Angel. We drove up one of the mountains there, called Yangmingshan. About halfway up, we rolled the windows down to smell the fresh air. It was wonderful to be away from the traffic noises and exhaust fumes that fill the Taipei basin. The mountain was beautiful, but different from the forest covered mountains of New Hampshire and British Columbia. This mountain had only a few trees, but was covered instead with grasslands.

We got out of the car and took a short hike around the summit area. At some points, the grass was taller than Joel! It was pretty easy to imagine that we were walking through some kind of savannah and that we might encounter a lion stalking its way through the long grasses. But instead of lions, there are buffaloes that live in the grasslands of Cingtiangang. It was really beautiful. There were even several couples up there getting their wedding portraits done. Yangmingshan is also famous for its hot springs. After we finished exploring the grasslands, we drove to another part of the mountain that has sulphuric hot springs bubbling up from the ground. Apparently this mountain is an old volcano, though it is inactive now – except for the hot springs that bubble to the surface and the smell of sulfur that fills the air. This area looked totally different from the grasslands – more like the surface of the moon than the African plains.

We finished off the day with a great lunch at a restaurant that is partway down the mountain. They serve some of the wild mountain vegetables, which seem to have a sweeter flavour than those you might fight in the local market. We ate in a room of the restaurant that had old stone walls – on some areas you could see a light covering of moss growing. The atmosphere was amazing and the food tasted wonderful. However, the company of our friends, Angel and Charles) was the best part of the meal (and the whole day). We had a great time hanging out, laughing, joking, and practicing our Chinese on them. We’ve been blessed to have many great friends during our year in Taiwan, and even though it took me so long to write about our trip up to Yangmingshan with Charles and Angel, it was a day that we’ll remember for many years to come. :D

See more photos here!

Well, we made it to Chiang Mai. We found curry, asap. But we’re really tired after pulling an all-nighter packing so we’re going to bed early.

Leaving is no fun – it’s always rushed: the packing and getting everything in order, but also the last moments with friends and all the things you want to say and moments you want to savour. I’m beginning to wonder if this will be a recurring theme in our lives… though I sure hope we get the packing part down before we have kids!

Mingdaw, Yang Mama, Zhi-ling, Wang Ge, Mu Shi and Gong-zhu (‘Princess’) came with us to the airport at 5am to see us off. We’re really going to miss them! We already do.

We’re in the mall at an internet cafe. When we figure out where the wireless connections are we’ll put up pictures, as we have a few small Thailand adventures planned. But tonight it’s just showers and bed.

ps – Chou-chou and Fire Chicken are now Mingdaw’s… I’m sure Doo-doo is thrilled.

Lǎo Zhào took us out tonight for dinner at a friend’s restaurant. His family’s restaurant is halfway between our apartment and work, so over the year we had some fun hanging out, exchanging gifts, learning má jiàng, sharing food, and stuff. In this video clip we were talking about going to China where the national standard Mandarin is the “common speech” (普通话) a.k.a. Beijing Mandarin (北京话). Taiwan’s “National Language” (國語) has a different accent, and our Taiwan friends sometimes like to poke fun at the Beijing accent, which drowns the end of every word in an “r” sound. The sentence Lǎo Zhào uses as an example near the end is 你是美女, which means “You are a beautiful woman.”

Saying goodbye sucks. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have a good time doing it.

Today we had to have two different goodbye sessions. The first was with the church where we taught the adult English class during most of 2006. I was glad they gave us minute to speak (with a translator) because they really have been like a big family to us this year, with all kinds of people going out of their way to make us feel welcome in Taiwan and seeing that we were taken care of. It was good to get to thank everyone, and enjoyable to search the crowd and deliberately make eye contact with specific people at the right time. Maybe I just liked being able to look over a crowd and see so many faces that are no longer strangers, people we can greet warmly by name and with whom we have some great shared memories. Cé-méi even made us goodbye card!

Then tonight some friends came over, most of whom were on that New Year’s trip to Wulai hot springs. Jessica cooked enchiladas for everyone, and then we played má jiàng. Surely we must be the first people ever in Taiwan to combine má jiàng with Mexican food. I was surprised at how they seemed to like it. I have yet to see Mexican anything here (according to one of our students: “Oh, Taiwan has Mexican food! T.G.I.Friday’s!”).

They ended the evening with a dinosaur picture (their suggestion), which I’ll post as soon as Wén-dí e-mails it to me. Here’s the first one.

It’s hard to say goodbye, and weird. We just got here a year ago. Now it’s like, “See you ‘later.’ We’re off to some place we’ve never been and don’t have specific plans beyond the immediate future. Good thing there’s Skype. Maybe next time we talk we won’t have to use any English!” Ugh. It’s too bad we can’t celebrate time together without having to end it. Maybe it’s a shadow and sunshine kind of thing.

We always have fun hanging out with the young adults. And it often involves great food, too. They took us out tonight to a hot pot restaurant that specializes in mutton, but of course has all the usual hot pot stuff, from seafood (shrimp, crab, squid) to dofu and tempura, vegetables, beef, and pork. And you get to mix your own sauces (big bonus for me)! And it’s all you can eat, and we were there for I think over three hours.

On the right is a picture of Kě-xīn and Jessica, who’s sucking the marrow out of a leg bone with a straw. We also had squid heads for the first time… I’m not sure if I was supposed to eat those. I thought it was a little octopus with really big eyes, until someone passed me a couple headless bodies. Oh well – tasted good.

In addition to having a blast with a really fun crowd, we also get to try as much Mandarin as we can (more opportunity than we get at work, where the pressures of running the school don’t make time for many impromptu Mandarin lessons). And our friends seem to enjoy playing Mandarin teacher. We’re so thankful they tolerate our constant stream of, “[new word] 是什麼?” We’re going to miss these guys – and fun, warm, and caring bunch.

Tonight the Sunday English class took us to a fantastic restaurant for Peking Duck. We had a great time getting to talk and laugh, and it only makes us realize that much more how we’re going to miss everyone. Man, that sounds so depressing. We leave Taiwan one week from today, so all of the “you’re leaving we need to do something” events are happening. Which is great! Except for the leaving part.

Some additional firsts/fun stuff at dinner tonight:

• having traditional Peking Duck for the first time
• laughing at our friends for laughing at us because they saw us laughing at one of them when he, upon closer examination of the Pope’s Nose (duck’s tail/butt meat), declared it (in all innocence): “a**hole”
• trying duck brains right out of the head (tastes sort of like squishy hard boiled egg yolk).

Tomorrow night we’re having hotpot with the young people’s group. Wén-dí is about as tall and skinny as me, and I’ve already challenged him to an eating contest. From what I’ve heard, though, I think I’ll lose. Sunday night it’s a party at our place. Jessica is cooking enchiladas and we’re playing má jiàng. Tuesday there’s a trip to night market specializing in Chinese New Year stuff with Mingdaw, and Wednesday we’re having dinner with Lǎo Zhào. I don’t know what happens after that – I suppose we’ll start thinking about packing. We leave Friday for Chiang Mai, Thailand.