Wow. This past weekend was hot, sandy and fantastic. I found out the 10th annual Hohaiyan Rock Festival was taking place directly on Fulong Beach, which is on the Northeast Coast of Taiwan. As soon as I heard the unbeatable combination of music and ocean views, I was in.

We (over) packed Friday night and left at 7 a.m. Friday morning, which should establish my level of eagerness to get there. Actually, the main reason we left so early was to beat the insane crowds of people that would be jamming in every nook and inch of floor space on the 1 and 1/2 hour train ride there. A friend who was going to moped there later asked if we would meet up with two girls new to Taiwan who would also be taking the train. We set off with our two awesome new friends bright and early, practically all glowing in our pale skin, blissfully unaware of the degree of sunburn that was in store for us later...

The Longmen Campsite has beautiful grounds just ten minutes from the beach and is only 800NT a night for a four-person tent, so we thought that would be the perfect accomodation for the night. I tried to call earlier in the week and make reservations, shakily asking in Chinese if they spoke English, but to no avail. We decided we would just chance it and check it out when we got there. Well the fact that we ended up camping on the beach under the stars should tell you how that went.

It was literally one of those perfect, straight-from-a-movie days. Deep blue skies, fluffly clouds rolling over the mountains, and waves strong enough to knock you over standing up at knee-level. We set up far enough down the length of the beach to be away from the crowds, yet close enough to hear the music playing in the background as they were setting up the stage. In the afternoon we wandered down the beach to where there were endless rows of red and white striped tents selling drinks, ice cream, snacks, beach apparel, sunglasses, etc.

We loaded up with treats and spent the rest of the morning/afternoon jumping in the waves and hanging on the beach. After we finally noticed that, despite our repeated slathering of sunscreen, we were getting fried, we went over by the pay part of the beach to where the Taiwanese were (wisely) all taking refuge from the sun under giant umbrellas, over-sized floppy hats, and tented shelters. It was too late to rent one of our own, but we made some friends and shared their shade.

Two weekends ago, in honor of the 4th, Bacon and I decided to have a thoroughly "American" weekend. It was the first occasion tinged with wistful thoughts of home that we've had since being here. However, the feeling has since passed and we just commented to each other the day how much we thoroughly feel at home now in this country so far from anything resembling the land from which we came.

Friday night we went to a funky outdoor bar and restaurant area in Ximen for some piping hot stone-oven pizza and tasty beverages. We ate on a cute deck upstairs overlooking the action down below at a pizzeria called Alleycats. The pizza was pretty good, and on our way out the owner came up to us and asked us: "You stay in Taiwan- long time or short?" When we told him we were going to be here for quite a while, he asked for our names, snapped a picture of us, and told us we get a free pizza the next time we come in. Ah, just one of the perks of sticking out as over-sized foreigners.

Saturday night rolled around and we were armed with dangerous explosives and cold drinks, but sans the grill we wanted for a cook out in the courtyard. We ended up just ordering pizza and garlic bread, which we figured could still pass as Fourth of July food. We spent the night with friends reminiscing about American pastimes (like eating lots of food) and shooting off fireworks in a large field behind the apartments.

Though most of them were hardly what could be considered amazing, there was one rather large rocket at the end that burst into a huge sparkly display- our mission was accomplished- we felt at home :)

*We miss and love all of you-!*

(Post by Bacon)

(Post by Alisha)
Right off of Old Street in Sansia is the very beautiful Sansia Bridge that crosses the (not so beautiful) river. It's a great place for a leisurely stroll with a fantastic view of the city and mountains in the distance.

We have now updated how to leave a comment on our blog posts. It used to be that you needed a google or openID account to leave a message, but now you can just post anonymously. So how about we get some more feedback... jerks. Simply click the comment below each post to do so.

After about 10 minutes of me seriously contemplating risking all to fetch my camera, we decided to try to make the best of the rest of our day. After all, it's only a camera and I can always buy another one (plus I now have an excuse to get an HD one). We continued on our hike that got progressively harder. The mountain seemed to continue on forever and the trail was very steep. After a strenuous, drenching, hour and 1/2 hike, we reached the end of our trail and were greeted with a sign that was mostly in Chinese but had a small portion in English that read: "This is the end of the Green Shower trail. Please turn around." Alisha and I were so upset we didn't know what to do with ourselves. Where was the waterfall? Where was the crystal clear pond that we could swim in? What was the whole point of that difficult hike? We were very upset with our day at this point so we turned around and basically fell down the mountain. Once we got back to our original trail we searched in vain for any other way we could take to find our magical swimming spot. We even tried to follow the vague directions given to us by our guide book and fellow bloggers on the internet, but there seemed to be no way to continue. After about an hour of exploration, we gave up and decided to go home.

Overall the trip wasn't a bust. We were able to see some remarkable bugs, prove to ourselves we could hike a difficult trail, and take in some fantastic waterfalls and grand scenery, but after sacrificing my camera to the mountain ghosts and not finding our swimming pond, we were a little disappointed.

So now that two and a half months have passed and we've started to carve out a little hole called home in this fascinating country, I feel I can finally comment on life in Taiwan from a perspective at least slightly more informed than that of a traveling tourist. I think that we've learned a little and grown a lot even in the small amount of time we have been here.
While walking through downtown Sansia the other night, I had probably one of the coolest experiences as far as truly stepping outside of my comfortable Western shell and experiencing some local color.

(Post by Bacon)

(Post by Alisha)

Who knew a little piece of paradise was located in our very own Sansia? After a long and stressful six-day work week, a group of us went off for a beautiful hike in the Manyueyuan National Forest Recreation Area. Our friend Liz had been there before and said it was a must-see with its cascading waterfalls, butterflies, and easy-going hiking trails. The steep and varying landscape creates the perfect atmosphere for all kinds of flowing water, from the powerful Virgin and Manyueyuan Waterfalls to the numerous winding trails of humble rocky waters. My favorite stop was Virgin Waterfall, where the mist from the falls sprinkled our skin after the humid trek it took to get there. It was a very refreshing experience, both in the literal and figurative sense. We saw a rock shaped like a turtle and several large and stunning butterflies while walking, but alas did not see the groups of monkeys that are rumored to travel the forests of Manyueyuan. Maybe on our next trip...

Below are some pictures. A video of the trip made by Robert will follow shortly-

(Post by Alisha)

Up to this point in our journey in Taiwan, Bacon and I have found three ways to communicate:

1. Hand gesturing/miming the intent
2. Our limited vocabulary of Chinese words and phrases we've acquired since our arrival in Taiwan
3. Relying on the abundance of Taiwanese that can speak English- this ranges from small conversation phrases to fluency.

As we're tired of all three, (especially the third item- we feel ignorant living in a country and "expecting" them to speak our language just to be able to converse), we have decided to get a Chinese tutor so we can at least learn enough for basic conversation and speaking.

We met with Twinsen on Sunday night, and it was a success! He offered the first hour as a trial period to see if we liked his style of tutoring, and we both decided that he was a great teacher. He provided us with a clear introduction to the Chinese language, includingㄅbo ㄆpo ㄇmo ㄈ fo and pinyin (slightly akin to learning the abc's in English), pronunciation and blending of sounds, explanation and examples of the four tones, and basics like pronouns and "be" verbs. Some sounds are extremely hard to pronounce because we never use those sounds in English, and the tones mean that one word can have four different meanings. Chinese is rated as one of the top three hardest languages to learn as a second language, but we are hoping that with weekly lessons and practice, we will slowly be able to break the communication barrier. As of now, we are going to meet at a tea house in Taipei, Ximen area, Sunday nights at 7:00 for an hour and a half. He charges $500 NT/hr ($15 American dollars), so it will work out to be less than $10 each a week- awesome. We are also buying the book he teaches with: "Practical Audio-Visual Chinese," (實(shí) 用(yòng) 視(shì) 聽(tīng) 華(huá) 語(yǔ), so that we will be able to do homework during the week and practice with each other.

Wish us luck!

(Post by Bacon)
Last Friday Alisha and I took a trip to go see C.K.S. Memorial Hall (find out about it here). The whole place is very stunning and features classic Chinese architectural style. The grounds are also home to the National Theater, National Concert Hall, Taiwanese art exhibits, and lush, scenic gardens. Below is a quick video I made showcasing the highlights of our trip.

(Post by Bacon)

(Post by Alisha)

Below is a video that I made from our trip to Yangmingshan National Park. The park is absolutely huge and there was no way that we would be able to see everything in one day, but I think the video does a good job of capturing the park's natural beauty. We are planning on heading back to the park a few times before our year trip is over and maybe I'll add to this video later on.

Hey everyone! The weeks are flying by here, so every weekend we try to pack a lot in and experience what Taipei has to offer. This Saturday was one of my favorites so far- we went out and explored the Jianguo Jade/Flower Market and, for Robert, Guanghuo Market (computer nerd-heaven).
We hit the Guanghuo Market first, which is an enormous building that houses a maze of computers, video games, and every other electronic device and accessory you could imagine. It had enough technological trinkets inside to keep him busy for a while...suffice it to say that he enjoyed it immensely.

Next up, we eventually found our way to the Jade Market, and it was amazing. It takes place under the Jianguo Elevated Freeway, and there are seemingly endless rows of stalls and vendors showcasing and selling their jade products. There was a wide range of jade jewelry, carvings, stones, teapots, and antiques, and about the same variance in quality. We read a few tips before we went in determining the quality and authenticity of jade, and it was pretty easy to tell what was real and what was fake or low-quality.

In addition, we have found that Taiwan, in contrast with several other Asian countries, is very helpful to foreigners, oftentimes giving them discounts rather than trying to rip them off. We have encountered enough of this Taiwanese friendliness ourselves to know this to be true. It ranges from simple things like helping us to the right bus stop/pointing us in the right direction (when we obviously have the look of clueless Westerns on our faces,) to a man in the flower market trying to give us a giant bag of planting mulch free of charge.

As we perused the jade jewelry section- my area of interest- I noticed one beautiful cream jade flower necklace in particular that I happened to like...hmm, with my birthday in a week, I'm hoping someone may have gotten the hint :)

***
The Flower Market is conveniently located right across the street from the Jade Market, and it is filled with gorgeous flowers and interesting plants, my favorites being the orchids. For about 6 dollars I got some beautiful magenta orchids in a ceramic pot.