I just got back from a wicked vacation with Shirin and Robyn. Some highlights were the marvelous marble mountains at Taroko Gorge and the hopping tropical town of Kenting. The week long break was a much needed escape from my crazy school.
Traveling all over Taiwan demonstrated again how Taiwanese hospitality is very unique, and much appreciated. Many people helped us on our road trip, especially with navigation. Everything here is harder when you don't know Chinese.... One example of this hospitality was in Taipei on Sunday. I had just said goodbye to Robyn and Shirin at 101 and was walking in the rain to the bus stop. An older woman approached me and asked if I wanted to walk under her umbrella with her. We walked several blocks and chatted. She helped me get my bus ticket, and we said goodbye. So nice!
From Sunday to Friday of last week I drove the entire perimeter of the country. Wild! The climate and environment greatly change from north to south and east to west. The north and south are beautiful in different ways. My heart sings when I watch the clouds roll over the lush Taiwanese mountains in the north, while the white sand beaches, blue sea and coconut trees are splendid in the south.
One of the disgusting parts of the trip was the western city of Kaohsiung. The air was actually brown with pollution. It was sick. There is no way anyone living there could be in a healthy state of being. This area is drastically different from the east coast. In the east there are only three small towns and several villages covering the coast. On the west side of the island one city smashes into the other, creating what seems to be one big town packed with the majority of Taiwan's 23 million people. A beautiful mountain range runs down the seem of the island, separating the chaos from beauty.
It was nice to celebrate my birthday here with friends from home and my new Taiwanese friends. On Friday, Ellie got me a cake and some people at KTV sang happy birthday. Saturday, my Canadian and ex-pat friends went to a concert in Taipei, and Monday a few good friends and I ate some delicious pizza and visited our fave watering hole.
27 has already been an interesting year. A 6.0 earthquake shook the house at 1:00 am on June 2. Seeing the ground and buildings move for the first time in my life was definitely riveting and an alarming experience. As soon I saw/felt the quake I ran to a safe spot until it passed. It was very quick and loud. There were no injuries or deaths, and to my knowledge no building fell, just a little of the earth dancing to a slow rumbling beat. Whew!
We rode this beast behind a jet ski and then snorkeled once Shirin and Robyn got scared :)
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