New Years Eve...Taiwan style!!

Well...it is New Years Eve here in Taiwan...  We have about 3 hours until it is officially 2013!  CRAZY!!  So....on to how we celebrated New Years Eve Taiwan style!  How do you think we celebrate New Years in Taiwan? ......

You guess it....or maybe not?  We went to a pizza place in Feng Yuan!  That's right....we ate at an Italian restaurant located in Taiwan.....funny huh?  I always thought it was a little funny but then I got thinking about it.  We have Mexican and Italian and Thai and Indian restaurants all over America.  Why is Taiwan any different.  Yes their food is slightly different but it's not too bad.  One thing that is different about being in Taiwan is they give you tea as your drink unless you specify otherwise.  So....we got sprite and coke instead.  You see those cool bottles in the picture?  That's what our drinks came in.  It was pretty fun...it is pretty easy to get around without a car or a bike.  We walk almost anywhere.  

After dinner we took a quick stop at the grocery store.  We just needed some things to tide us over for a couple of days.  We still aren't exactly sure what we like or what we want to eat so we just got a few things....jelly, eggs, butter, ramen, etc...I also got a Snickers Bar.  I've been really wanting chocolate.  :)  Do you want to know how much I spent on those 5 things?  I spent about 178 NT.  That equals about $6.  You definitely couldn't get that much stuff for only $6 in America! 

Then, we tried to get a Bing Sha.  Those things are SO delicious.  They are basically smoothies.  They don't add all of the sugar that they would in america.  It is just fresh fruit blended together.  Unfortunately the store was closed.  Once we got home from this adventure we decided that we wanted to watch a movie.  So...we put in my copy of the Hunger Games.  Well....we put it in the DVD player and it started to play.  As it started I noticed that I didn't realize anything that they were saying....the movie was being translated into Chinese.  Unfortunately we didn't have a remote so we couldn't fix the problem.  So....we changed our minds and watched Harry Potter instead.  :)  Now we are just listening to the fireworks and watching the movie.  It's been a pretty good day!  I can't believe it has been almost a week since I left my home in Washington and came to my new home in Taiwan.  CRAZY!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM TAIWAN!!!!

Week 1...CHECK!

Well....let me tell you about the rest of my week.  Yesterday (Saturday) some of the returning teachers along with the new teachers went to a town called Lugang.  It is mainly a shopping town.  We didn't have any money so we just explored the area....and took lots of pictures.  There were so many cool little shops and a couple of Buddhist temples.  We definitely took plenty of pictures.  We were at one of the temples and all of a sudden we heard a loud "POP, POP, POP".  We definitely weren't expecting that.  As long as it wasn't a gun shot we were fine.  :)  Apparently one of their rituals is to put a bunch of fire crackers into this metal crate thing.  Then, a ton of people walked into the temple and listened to a sermon-like speech.  It was very interesting to see something like this.  The temples were filled with smoke because they burn incense when they come to worship.  It is definitely a different religion but it was very interesting to see some of the things that they do.  The architecture in the temples was also amazing.  They spend so much time on these temples and they make them very extravagant.  One thing that I still can't get over is how much of a novelty we are.  They think that white skin is beautiful and we get a lot of stares.  Some of the teachers have told me that they would be just walking around or sitting on a bus and some random person would just take a quick picture of you.  In Lugang some random person took a video of us.  We were standing around talking and he was taking a video of the temple and then he turned the camera on me...super random!  I just need to remember that none of this is offensive.  They are just interested in us and our culture just as we are interested in there's.  And we are just very different from them.

This is a picture of one of the temples that we found in Lugang.

After Lugang we went back home for a few minutes and then we headed out to a night market and to try to find some food.  The night market was very interesting.  We bought 6 loaves of bread for 100 NT (that's about 3 american dollars).  That is SO cheap!  :)  It's crazy!  We also tried to go to this great place that is right by our house to get some food.  However, we definitely failed!  They were closing right as we got there.  :(  Oh well.  We went to 7 eleven instead.....yes they have those here....and we just got a couple of things to tide us over.

Ok.  Now on to Sunday.  So I can officially say that I have attended church in a different country.  How crazy is that?!?!  Luckily we attend an english branch.  There are 50 to 60 active members in the branch.  That is SO tiny!  I have never been in a ward that small...even when I went to singles wards at home.  I am going to get home and think that those wards are SO BIG!!  Today was the last day that they will attend church at 1:30 pm.  For the new year they are switching to 9:30 in the morning.  NASTY!!  Getting to church is quite an adventure here in Taiwan.  Today we left our house around 11:30...we wanted to catch the 11:45 bus but we missed it.  So...we caught the one at 12:00.  Oh well.  The first thing that we had to do was walk about 15 minutes down the road to the bus station in Feng Yuan.  I am going to have to get pretty familiar with this route if I plan on traveling at all....all of the major buses and trains leave from this area.  Anyways, after the 15 minute walk we had to wait for the bus.  Then, the bus ride is about 45 minutes long.  Buses in Taiwan are like nothing I have ever seen before.  There are so many people in this country that they cram as many people on the buses as they possibly can.  It is usually cramped and uncomfortable for most of the way.  I have learned that you can't  be polite.  In order to survive you have to push your way through.  Once we finished our bus ride there was a short walk to the church building.  We first met with the branch president.  He wanted to meet us and he plans to give us callings right away (I'm pretty sure).  One of the new teachers in our group already has a calling.  Then, church started with Relief Society, then we had Sunday School and we ended with Sacrament Meeting.  It was actually pretty nice and it went pretty quickly.  The real adventure happened on our way home.  We got to the bus stop and it was raining and freezing cold.  It probably wasn't freezing by Utah or Idaho standards but it was cold to us.  Plus we were in our skirts which made it even worse.  Usually the wait for a bus is a maximum of 15 minutes.  This time it was 30 minutes.  We didn't dare go stand inside a shop to keep warm or anything because once a bus comes all of the people try to shove their way on.  You have to be first if you want any chance of a seat.  So...after bus 55 came we ran to try and board the bus.  We looked inside and people were so crammed in it.  There was no way we were all going to fit.  One of the experienced teachers fit on the bus...that was all.  So....we had to wait for another one to come.  Luckily another bus 55 came soon after that one did.  We all squeezed onto the bus.  We didn't get a seat.  The walkway was crowded with so many people.  Nicole, Kaitlyn and (2 of the other new teachers) were like right up against each other).  A crowded bus is almost a benefit because the driving is so crazy that you are definitely thrown around a little bit but when you are crammed in like sardines you don't move around as much.  You can't even imagine crazy the buses (and cars for that matter) are here.  They are always slamming on their breaks and getting extremely close to the cars, scooters and people around them.  I can't even watch or it makes me nervous.  As we came to each stop more people got off.  As they got off it is important to begin to push your way to the back to try and get air.....and maybe even a seat.  At one stop many people got off and I noticed a seat towards the middle of the bus.  I definitely pushed my way through the crowd to get to that seat.  I'm not usually pushy like that but you have to be in a country like this.  There are so many people that it is almost a survival skill.  The guy sitting next to me was studying English in a book.  When his stop came I noticed that he was getting read to leave so I got up to let him out.  He said "thank you" in almost perfect English and got off the bus.  It is so fun to me to see that we are such a novelty here.  When we finally got off the bus we had another 15 minute walk back to our apartment.  By this point it was 7:00 and it was cold and dark.  We finally got back home.  It was so good to be home.  The returning teachers have been so good to us.  We are with a great group of people!  A couple of the teachers made us spaghetti and garlic bread for dinner since we haven't really had an opportunity to go to the store.  That was so nice of them!

It still feels very surreal that I am even in this country but I am loving it.  The people are so nice and kind.  The teachers that we are working with are nice and as Annie would say, "I think I'm gonna like it here!"

Our first adventure in Taiwan...

Well....I am officially in Taiwan!  It was quite an eventful day...let me tell you about it.  I left Washington on Thursday at one in the morning.  So...it was really Wednesday night.  :)  The plane ride wasn't that awful.  I was pleasantly surprised.  The fed us chicken for dinner and then I slept.....for 9 hours.  I woke up just in time to eat breakfast and then it was time to land.  The medicine my doctor gave me must have really worked.  :)  It was great!

This is when the adventure really began.  My plane landed first.  I got off the airplane around 5:30.  I got through immigration and I found my bags in no time at all.  Then it was time to wait.  I thought I was going to be the last one in Taiwan....however my plane landed before the rest of the teachers arrived.  I was talking to my dad on facebook when I saw one of the teachers.  It was great to see a "familiar" face even though I didn't know her before now.  So....after the four of us found each other we needed to exchange our money and find a pay phone.  Luckily one of the teachers knew a little bit of Chinese.  That was helpful.

Unfortunately, we got on the wrong bus.  So...we spent about 2 hours on a bus to the Taichung train station. However, we wanted to be at the Feng Yuan train station.  The bus driver told us when to get off.  He dropped us off like 2 or 3 blocks from where we actually wanted to be.  So...we had to walk down the street with ALL of our luggage......that was FUN!  And...on these streets there were these little pathways all along the sidewalk.  We had to maneuver all of our bags around these barriers.  It was quite the adventure.

Then we had to figure out how to get from this train station to the one in Feng Yuan.  We tried to call the head of the Language Institute but he didn't answer.  So...we found someone that could help us.  They got us a ticket for the train and she let us know how to board the train and where to go.  She told us to go to car 12 but we didn't see a label for the number 12.  So....we just waited by the number 10.  However, the train came faster than we were anticipating.  We ran to try to get to number 12 but we weren't going to make it so we started throwing things onto number 11.  We have so much crap.  It was hard to get it all on the train.  The train started beeping like it was going to leave us and we were still not all packed onto the train.  Luckily we got everything onto the train.

We were only on the train for about 10 minutes.  A nice lady helped us get our stuff off the train.  Then, once we were off the train, she helped us carry our bags up a flight of stairs, down another flight of stairs, and down another flight of stairs.  She helped us get halfway.  Then, another friend helped us carry our stuff the rest of the way.  People here are so nice!  I just couldn't believe it!

We finally got to where we were supposed to be....just 2 hours late.... :)  Then, we did some training things and we rode our bikes to the grocery store.  I really enjoyed riding my bike.  It was fun!  After that we wandered around Taiwan and explored a little bit...but not too much.  :)  Then, we got dinner at a local place.  It was actually really good!  I got mushroom rice.  Yes you heard me right.....I actually ate rice.  And then I got pork dumplings.  It was a typical Chinese meal and I actually really enjoyed it.  I also ate it with chopsticks!  That's different for me also.  :)  For dessert we got a smoothie from a place here in Taiwan.  It has been a great first day and I hope to keep learning new things every day!

These are the four teachers at dinner after a LONG day of traveling.  We were all so tired!