Angel and Debby's Visit

A couple weeks ago, we were lucky enough to have our host daughter from two years ago and her cousin come to visit me and Jonathan in Tainan! There's not much to do here, so we pretty much toured the whole city in 4 days. :)

On Tuesday Angel and Debby arrived, and Jon took some time off work. First we went to eat some lunch, and our cab driver joined us! (He is one of Jon's employees as well, so it wasn't weird, haha)

These were some delicious 肉圓rou yuan! And Leon said it was the most famous in town, and had been there the longest.

Then we went to visit the ChiMei Museum in Tainan.

At ChiMei Museum (Only go here if you came to Taiwan to feel like you're in Europe. Seriously.)

Caught in the rain... (with one umbrella and a bench that only fit three people) Sad Mallory...

The sun was too bright!

Just being goofy

Then we had dinner at my all time favorite restaurant, Nephi! If you come visit me in Taiwan, I will take you here, and you will have the best French food you've ever had (unless maybe from France...)

Fancy

Jon is either tired or just being annoying...

Outside the restaurant

 On Wednesday we went to Chihkan Lou (or Fort Proventia) which was a Dutch fort at the time of Dutch occupation in Taiwan. Tainan was the first city in Taiwan, and is the old capital.

Just outside the tower

With Angel, you take pictures at every photo opportunity

Inside the tower!

The tower had two parts and really cool balconies. I told the girls it reminded me of Mulan.

We then went to an old famous street in Tainan that has some cute shops and stuff. We realized later that it would be better at night when the shops were open, haha! But we did find some awesome ice cream and a Canadian/Taiwanese man who spoke English! (he also told me that my Chinese was really good!)

Mango, Pineapple, and Lemon (Get the lemon, it's the best!)

 Then we met up with Jon at Hayashi Department Store. This is the oldest department store in Tainan and Taiwan. It was the first building to have an elevator!

Fun times. I had to drive here in a car. This may not sound like much, but trust me, it was crazy. Taiwan scooters are the worst!

There's a shrine on top of the roof. Kind of odd, but we took pictures!

Jon likes to sneak up on people...

Then it was time for dinner! We ate at a BBQ place. I don't remember the name of it, but it was amazing! So full!

Ready to eat!

Love me some Sweet and Sour Pork! (This is the closest thing to American Chinese Food...)

Finally, we went to get some Mango Bing 芒果冰 for dessert. Unfortunately we couldn't find a parking spot, but Jon was on his scooter, so he had to wait too long for us. He finished the whole 冰 before we got there! So we had to order another one to share, haha!

It was really sad to see him sitting with an empty bowl and four little bowls when we walked in. Wish I had a picture of that!

On Thursday we went to the Confucius Temple and wrote down our wishes!

In the temple

Me attaching my wish to the wall (Min was that I wished I could learn how to speak Chinese!)

From there we walked to the National Museum of Taiwanese Literature. This place was really cool, I wish I could read Chinese. The best part was the children's library! I think I will have to come here on the weekends when Jon has to work and read children's books in Chinese. It's a great resource!

Me, Angel, and Debby reading a children's book

Then we met up with Jon again, this time at the Black Bridge Sausage Museum or in Chinese:

黑橋牌香腸博物館 

Out front - We were trying to take a picture with the sign, but it was too dark

So many different kinds of sausage!

Photo ops everywhere! Here is a BBQ overlooking the city

Bike delivery? And Jon's head floating.

Our last adventure was that evening at the night market. We shot some BB Guns, ate some crazy food, and went shrimping!

Jon was the only one who came close!

Yum!

Angel loves her food!

Shrimping!

Thanks girls for coming to visit! We had an awesome time with you and are so happy to be part of your family! Foreign exchange programs are amazing! I'm so happy that I have two wonderful girls in my life, from completely different cultures and backgrounds, yet they are both my daughters. :) Love you both, Angel and Charlotte.

Come again soon Angel and Debby!

Water Fountain at ChiMei Museum

Home Away From Home

We moved! A couple weeks ago we moved to a little bit bigger place with our own bathroom and such. It's nice, but it looks better in the photos. :) As with any rental there are things you'd like to change or things that don't work so well and you just think, "Oh well, not my problem." That's kinda how it's been for us here. But the other place didn't seem like it was mine, this place does. (Probably because Jon lived alone in that apartment for so long, it was really more like his domain...)

Here are some photos of the new place! It's on the 14th floor of a pretty old building, but the inside is (mostly) newly renovated.

This is the courtyard. We live in D area, and it's enclosed like this (our apartment is behind me in this photo). You can enter at multiple places, but you have to have an electronic key, or if you come through the main entrance the guard has to let you in. We feel pretty secure, especially since you need the key to use the elevator, too.

This is the living room area. The entire apartment came furnished, so we pay a little more, but we don't have to worry about buying furniture, or moving it when we move! We have since bought a couple tables, but those are small and will be easy to move. To the left when you come in the door there is a closet for shoes, rain gear, bags, etc.

This is the study area. You can close the partitions or leave them open. I think this is originally supposed to be a Japanese style dining area, but we just eat on the couch. Seriously. Maybe one day we will eat like civilized people, but it's not likely to happen until we have kids. :) You can sort of see the kitchen behind the study area.

Here is the wall opposite the couch, complete with TV which I don't know how to work without Jon because everything on the remote is in Chinese. And that door to the left opens into the bathroom. My favorite feature is the fact that it's a tub which we added a shower curtain to. Many bathrooms here don't have wet/dry separation, so when you shower, everything gets wet and then you have to mop down the whole bathroom.

Here is the kitchen with two bar stools and a counter for eating area. We do occasionally use this area to eat. ;) The best thing is our fridge, because now we can keep leftovers or buy food and cook. This morning I made eggs on our waffle iron. Yum!

Right off of the kitchen we have a sliding door and a balcony. The balcony is super small and triangular shaped, but it has a washing machine which is so nice tot have! Other places we looked at you had to share, it was coin operated, or you had to go to the laundromat. Not a huge deal, but this is a big time saver for sure!

Our bedroom has an entryway with a closet, which is where we store our drying rack for laundry, and then you turn to the left and we have another wardrobe and our bed. There's also a little vanity in the opposite corner, pictured below. To the right in the picture is he door to the bathroom. Super small and also oddly shaped, it's not much, just a sink, shower head, and toilet, also pictured below.

And we also have a small guest bedroom that I use for working out. It's not fancy and doesn't have a wardrobe or closet (because we moved it into the master) but it will be just fine for our guests (if we have any!) It does have a mattress now! It didn't when we first moved in.

We have added a few things here in there, like these carpet squares you can buy so that your whole house isn't tile floor. Hopefully we can add a few more decorations, but I don't think we will go too crazy yet, we aren't sure if we will live here for longer than a year.

The nice thing about this place is it's really close to a bunch of places to eat, buy drinks, convenience stores, etc. So I can walk less than a kilometer and get what I need. It's also 1.5 km from where I work, and there's a super easy way to get there so I don't have to drive on major roads too much.

I've also been learning how to ride the scooter, and we might get another one so I can take one to work. It's just much easier to ride it around instead of a car. The streets are really narrow in some places and there are scooters everywhere. As a car driver, you've got to be super careful because scooters just zip in and out of everywhere. It's actually safer to ride a scooter.

Now you all know, if you want to come to Taiwan, there's a place you can stay! I can't believe I've been here a month already! I start working in a month, too! I miss my home (in Kansas and in Colorado) a lot, and learning Chinese is not easy, but I like it here so far and I think I will enjoy calling it home.

We Moved to Taiwan!

So, I haven't posted anything in a while. This is due to my extreme laziness when it comes to most things in general, but I feel like I have a particular affinity for laziness when it comes to blogging or journaling or anything of the sort. I mean, how many times have I stopped posting for long periods of time on here, and then all of a sudden think, "I should do that again" just to have the cycle start all over again. It's like this with my journals, too. There are big gaps in time and I usually write some sort of a "catch up" post to document the last 3 years or so before I commit (and I mean it this time!) to writing once a day, or maybe a week, or a month... I have 6 maybe 7 of these journals, and all of them, literally ALL are unfinished. I hate leaving those big gaps of time, and I hate those TLDR "catch up" entries, so I just start over. Go to the stationary store (which I love the stationary stores here in Taiwan), find a cute new journal, and begin again. That is almost what I did here! I am literally sitting in my bed on my iPad trying to come up with a fancy name and a fancy cover for my new fancy blog when this one is sitting here abandoned. And so, I'm not going to start over or "catch up" anything.

For those of you who don't have Facebook, or haven't seen me in a while, or maybe have been living under a rock, I'm not going to fill you in. If you don't already know that I just moved to Taiwan, we have bigger problems than me not continuing to blog on a regular basis. If you don't know me at all, then welcome! I'm sorry you somehow came across my blog and have actually made it this far in reading it. You must have nothing better to do or are procrastinating writing your own blog by reading mine...

So, life in Taiwan is...different. There are things that I miss about the states, and things that I don't. There are things that I love about here, and things that I really don't love. Biggest thing I've noticed, and I knew this going into it, was the humidity. It's not really HOT here, but it is warm and humid. It's a tropical island, so it feels tropical...imagine that! It feels like I should be laying on a beach in my swimsuit at a resort, not riding around fully clothed on a bike. This will take some getting used to I guess. The thing is, I just spent the last 5 years living in Wichita, Kansas and while I think it's hotter there, it's not as humid as here. And the humid summer here lasts about 6 months... Already my least favorite season... The weather is also just stagnant. The high is 33°C and the low is 27°C for the entire week. So it doesn't get cool at night, at least not like Colorado does, or even Wichita. It's just the same temperature. During the day the sun beats down on you, so I guess it feels a little cooler at night, but you're still sweating at 9pm with no physical exertion... I shower twice a day here, at least. Most of them are what Jon and I call a "rinse" and I have never really taken a true cold shower on purpose before I moved here. Today I was actually upset that the water was too warm coming out and I needed to wait for it to cool down.

Okay enough about weather, Taiwan really is awesome. I do miss Amazon.com, Netflix, Braum's (milk and ice cream), and a bunch of other things, but this is a great place to live. Everyone is super helpful and kind. Yesterday I was pumping up my bike tires so I could go get some dinner. This girl saw me and asked me if I had a scooter or told me to get a scooter (I'm not entirely sure what she said... It was in Chinese and she pointed to her scooter...). I told her that my husband had the scooter and I had the bike. She looked a little sad for me, haha. She asked where I was going, and I told her I was going to get dinner. So she walks over to her scooter and offers me two beautiful ripe mangoes. I politely refused but I think she thought I didn't have any food or something, it was kind of comical because I had food I could eat, I just wanted to go out and get dinner. But really, the people here are so kind, and maybe it's because I'm white, but I like to think it's just because that's who they are. I've never felt more safe out on my own at night, walking through dark alleys. It's really nice to feel safe wherever you go.

The other thing I want you all to know is, in Taiwan they speak Chinese. Mandarin and Taiwanese actually. If you don't know one of these languages at least a little, good luck. I know a fair amount of words already but I cannot understand anyone! I spend 2-4 hours a day studying and I still struggle to get the most basic sentence out. It's really frustrating, but I have only been here a week, so I just tell myself it will get better.

My job starts mid-August, and I'm really excited for this. I'm going to be an English teacher at a private school here in Tainan. The cool thing is, it's elementary grades, and I won't only teach English, but I get to teach other subjects IN English, so it will be different. This has been a goal of mine for a long time and I'm really pumped to work with kids again. I think right now it's hard to find things to fill my time because I'm home all day while Jon is at work, but I keep busy with working out, reading, studying, exploring Tainan, mindlessly scrolling Facebook... I think I will enjoy myself much more once I'm working.

We've done a lot of fun things though. We went to see Jurassic World, we celebrated the Dragon Boat Festival; watched some races and flew a kite, and we go out and eat new things every day! We've also looked at apartments and put down a deposit on one. I don't have any pictures because they took it down from the internet, but we should be moving soon! Our lease here is up on the 4th of July, so less than 10 days. Right now we live in a 150 square foot room with a shared bathroom. It's okay, but sharing the bathroom with three other people isn't very glamorous. I think I will miss this location, but I will find things that I like about our new location too!

I think Jon is a little happy that I'm back with him permanently. We are pretty good at long distance, but it's nice to be home. And Taiwan is my new home!

Europe - Deutschland

On June 13th we drive from Belgium into Germany. As we drive we can see the Kolner Dom (Cathedral) in the distance. Love! As I said in my last post, this is one of my favorite cities in Germany. I love how clean and inexpensive it is, and the Rhein is so beautiful. We visited the Cathedral and decided to climb to the top. I have done this twice before, and each time I say I am never going to do that again. Well I did it, haha! Jon and I walked up 509 steps to the top of the bell tower and then we took some incredible pictures of the city. The view and the breeze were both very nice. Then we had to come back down to see the rest of Cologne.

We ate at a small restaurant called Oma's Kuche. I had schnitzel and Jon had a special with sausage, sauerkraut and an egg. It was very good and I got to practice ordering in German! After lunch we went to see a free concert at the Kolner Philharmonie. This was a beautiful concert, but it was interesting because we were dressed in street clothes, and so were the musicians. They played beautifully. 

We only had about an hour left before we had to leave, so we took a quick tour of the Lindt Chocolate museum. Here they explain where the chocolate comes from and show you how it's made. We like learning about how things are made, and of course eating chocolate. 

On our way back to park we saw an Eis shop and got some Spaghetti Eis. This is vanilla ice cream that is pushed through a mold that makes it appear like spaghetti noodles. Then they put strawberry sauce (to look like tomato sauce) and white chocolate shavings (like Parmesan cheese). This was one of my favorite things when I studied in Germany, so it was so nice to have it again.

We left Köln and drove through the forests to Friedrichsdorf, just outside of Frankfurt. This is where one of the LDS Temples is. We got to attend the temple there which was a really neat experience for us.

From there we drove toward Stuttgart. We had made plans to stay with a friend of Jon's from High School. Maike was a foreign exchange student at Jon's high school in Ault, and they have kept in touch, so instead of staying in Stuttgart, we decided to go stay with her and her family just outside of Stuttgart.

We arrived about 9pm to a wonderful Swäbian dinner, roast meat, späzeln with sauce, and vegetables. Maike's parents and boyfriend were very nice and hospitable. We chatted for a bit and then retired. Our room was very nice and the house was incredibly huge for Germany.

The morning of the 14th we had a wonderful breakfast with Maike and her parents. We then headed out to see the Mercedes Benz Museum in Stuttgart. Maike drove us so we can look around while we go. The museum was extensive. It took you through the history of the automobile and what was going on at that time around the world. I really enjoyed the museum and the cars were nice! 

We headed to Ludwigsburg and ate lunch at a traditional restaurant. I had käsespäzlen and it was very good. Jon had a dish that was noodles stuffed with vegetable mix and sausage. The idea was that on Fridays one couldn't eat meat, so they made this noodle dish where you couldn't see the meat because it was wrapped up, that way you could still eat it and be in harmony with God's law. ;)

After lunch we went to a palace in Ludwigsburg that housed the Schwäbian kings. We went on a tour, which was entirely in German, so I got to practice my listening skills. :) I though I did pretty well for being as rusty as I am in German. The palace was just stunning and the artwork incredible. Maike was very kind and translated for Jon.

After our tour of the Palace, we got some eis and then headed back to the house. We took a quick stop at a supermarket for apfelschorle and schwipschwap and also chocolate and an ATM. 

After we got back to Maike's we started our journey to München. This was a 2 hour drive only because the autobahn is awesome! My top speed was 180 kph (112 mph). We arrived about 10pm and didn't do much there but sleep. 

Saturday in München was great! First thing in the morning we went to Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial. This was a great exhibit and very sobering. When you see the site and all the barracks that were destroyed and where the prison was, it was just haunting. We also saw gas chambers disguised as showers (which they say were never used for mass killings but maybe for experiments) and then the crematorium, where countless dead were cremated. Dead from starvation, beatings, shootings, maltreatment, or exhaustion. 

Dachau was a reminder never to forget the atrocities of mankind lest we make the same mistakes again. I'm glad we went and experienced that, it made the day sobering, but was a good reminder.

We returned to Munich and ate at Augustiner Brau. They had a bier garten, but we opted to stay inside because there were no spots in the shade. The food was great and we enjoyed the atmosphere with the waiters and waitresses wearing traditional Bavarian garb. 

On Saturday, Munich has an open air market, so we got to eat through the Crowded streets and purchase food and items from market stalls. It was a lot of fun. 

In Munich we saw a couple churches and went to the Residenz, where the dukes of Bavaria lived. This was an extensive building, much like Schloss Ludwigsburg. We were there for some sort of music festival as well. The atmosphere was much like you would expect in Bavaria. 

We left Munich about 6 pm and headed to a little town called Kolbermoor, just outside Rosenheim. We decided to stay the night here because it is halfway to Salzburg from Munich. We ate at a small cafe restaurant run by an Italian man. I had pizza with spaghetti as a topping and prosciutto. It was delicious! Jon had much fun talking to the man, and he didn't know much German, so it was interesting. It started raining while we were there, but we didn't get too wet. 

We stayed the night at a nice comfy home in Kolbermoor and left early the next morning, Sunday the 16th to drive to Austria. Just two more days until Praha!