The Final Hoorah

Well, it's been a wild ride but it has (unfortunately) come to an end. We spent a total of 6 months in Taipei and had some amazing and some weird experiences but none the less wonderful.

We are back in Maryland and are both employed! Jess will be teaching 2nd grade at Kemp Mill Elementary in Montgomery County Maryland. Jason is back inspecting elevators in the Washington metro area. He is also about to begin full-time classes at the Univ. of Maryland. He's officially a senior and hopefully will graduate in May of 2010! We're having a party and you're all invited!

We thank you all for following us and keeping us in your prayers. We hope you enjoyed some of the posts and wherever the Lord sends us we'll try and do this blog thing again.

Last Few!

Are days in Taiwan are winding down, we'll post a 'final thoughts' in a few days.

BEIJING!!!

Well, we didn't move there so we figured a long weekend would suffice. Here's a brief picture tour of our whirlwind weekend. Hope you enjoy it.

The great helmsman himself perched atop Tiananmen. There were probably around 10,000 people milling about sitting, yelling, spitting, absolutely glorious!

Monument to the people, although most didn't notice that there was a monument just for them.

Here's where Mao lies in state. I will now refer to him as Mr. Pickle. We didn't get to see him b/c we were wearing sandals, which I was informed, was disrespectful. You can wear a tube top but not sandals. I don't get it. (I did not wear a tube top either, I forgot it at home)

'What the...?' I actually have no idea what I'm looking at here so make something up to amuse yourselves

Throne room inside the Forbidden city

Government officials residences

A side passage where most of the eunuchs and concubines stayed

The original home of the infamous Empress Dowager Cixi

The bell tower of Drum and Bell Tower fame

The God-forsaken climb up to the top of said Bell Tower

A celebratory 'Magnum Bar' which we bought from a Christian lady who had posters of Jesus all over her shop. That's neat! But she also gave us free dangly 'luck' lanterns to tie to our cell phone. Not so neat.

What became our favorite 'hutong' (alley) in Beijing. Lots of shops and good food

A local market

Temple of Heaven

Ah, the wonderful food! Seahorses, lizards, and live scorpions (yup, they were still squirming)

And the 'Captain Obvious' award goes to...

The Great Wall (also a great place to buy cheap beer and a Mao Zedong watch!)

The Summer Palace

Water Cube

We didn't get to swim or pee in the pool!

(The first was Jess' desire, the second was mine)

C'mon! I'm just kidding

The Birds Nest on a wonderfully clear day in the capitol of China.

We had a wonderful time and loved it in Beijing! We didn't realize how huge it was though, but our hotel was really convenient and the food was great. Would recommend it to anyone! Just don't wear sandals!

East Coast Baby! Part II

In part two we will cover our time from the middle east coast to the south end of Taiwan and then back up the "rift valley" highway a little inland.

We were driving and we heard some shouting so we rolled down the window to see this. We got out to investigate

And realized it was an aboriginal festival! They invited us to dance to...but we passed.

Older people in front, kids in the back

Near the end of our coastal journey

A very elaborate bridge to a small island

Upon arrival at a very famous dairy farm called Chulu Farm

Perched on a hill overlooking the valley

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Our arrival at Jade Mountain National Park

Our welcoming sign

Crossing over a gorge

So courteous, just in case you can't read the sign they left glasses for you

Literally on the side of the road, there was a self-described "mountain man" selling sausages and rice cooked in bamboo stalks. Here's Jess demonstrating

This park had several beautiful waterfalls

People picking famous Taiwanese tea

We really enjoyed our trip with the Mom to the East Coast. We had some great experiences, some shady roads, wonderful people, a lot of rain, a lot of sweat, but a wonderful time. Thanks Mom!

East Coast Baby! Part I

While Jess' mother is in Taiwan we wanted to take her along the scenic east coast. We heard it had amazing scenery, so now was the time to go. I'll have to break this up into several parts. So here is part one:

Our traditional Chinese home-stay in Hualian, our first stop on tour

The courtyard outside our room

Jess' mom, Lois, taking in the view (of what I don't know but it was nice, I'm sure)

Welcome to the "Sweet Potato Village Rest Stop"

Views from atop those sweet potatoes

About half-way down the coast

No we did not electrocute, poison, OR bomb the fish. We also did not pollute the environment

More coast

There was a tropical storm pretty far out to sea so it made the waves extremely rough. Which was a bummer because Jason really wanted to surf

This is a place called Shitiping (don't laugh...ok, go ahead) You are actually supposed to sound an 'r' between the first 'i' and 't' so when you say it in Chinese it's not as funny. Nor do the Chinese understand why we laugh. If you're not laughing please move on

My Wallet!!!!

Just kidding.

I'll get some more up tomorrow. More adventures, weird faces, and elementary humor to come! Stay tuned.