(i do not know what it is about you that closes and opens; only something in me understands the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses) nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands.

well, this is it.  our last day in taiwan before we leave tomorrow morning.  it's hard to believe a month has gone by already.....

we just got back from the beach in kenting early, early this morning.  kenting is at the southernmost tip of taiwan.  we took a bus from taipei at midnight on sunday.  the bus takes you to kaohsiung (the spelling is from memory here) and then you take a van/shuttle/taxi to kenting. 

first off, an overnight bus ride SOUNDS like a good idea - and time-wise it is a good idea - but it's also miserable.  i think i probably slept like an hour tops.  the bus stops and we get off and it's 5 a.m. and this guy comes up to us and is asking if we're going to kenting and we're like "yawn.  yeah." and he herds us into this minibus/van.  needless to say, we weren't doing a lot of thinking.  once we were in the van, then we realized how not quite wise it was to just get in a vehicle without asking any questions or thinking it through.  but it turned out to be a good decision in the end because we had left all our maps and hotel information in taipei, so when the driver asked us where we were staying in kenting, we're like "we don't know."  but he knew of a really nice place, so he arranged for us to stay there and arranged to pick us up when we were ready to leave.  in the meantime, of course, ashley was making jokes like "what's that you say, sir?  you have candy in the van?" or "you say my mom sent you to pick me up?"  so we were all laughing hysterically, and the poor driver - who's really doing us a favor - is completely clueless.  and when ashley said that the trip was turning out to be luxury, anna corrected her and said the trip was "luck-xury" - since we seemed to be falling into luxurious situations.  like the hotel - which was really, really nice, and right across from the beach.......

in the morning, on the way to the beach, we stopped in this little hawaiian-style shop because ashley and i needed beach towels.  well, it turned out the guy was charging way too much for towels, but he was very amusing otherwise.  we think he's actually from hawaii; at any rate, he's an american.  he's married to a taiwanese girl and they own the shop and a hotel.  he was just going on and on, not making a ton of sense, until he said the most amazing thing.  he said "taiwan is really great, except it's full of taiwanese people."  we didn't even know what to say to that.  but when someone on a bicycle almost runs you over on the SIDEWALK and then spits as they pass by, you can see where he's coming from.  :-)

we spent the first day at the beach in baisha, and it's the most beautiful beach i've ever been to.  the water is gorgeous, blue and clear.  and there are little reefs just off the beach.  so we rented used and un-sanitized goggles and snorkels and did some exploring.  (literally, the guy lifted up a tupperware container of goggles and snorkles and you pick a pair.  and they're certainly not clean.  we're hoping salt water acts as some kind of sanitizer, or we're all getting herpes simplex.)  snorkeling was crazy.  you could swim right over the reefs or dive down a little and swim around them.  ashley even spotted a few fish!  and the un-sanitized snorkels took my mind off of sharks for awhile......

there's this little outside bar/restaurant area just off the beach and we ate some dinner there.  well, it was a hot dog.  we were looking at the menu, and the guy's like "all we have left are the hot dogs."  okay.........  then we'll have 5 hot dogs?  but he points at the hot dogs on the menu, just to what?  make sure we really want the only thing they have left?  he's lucky those hot dogs were so delicious.  they do have a really sweet set-up there though - little tents, wicker furniture, a bar, and pretty good music.  i mean, they played total eclipse of the heart, so we were fairly satisfied.

the next day we went to the beach across from the hotel and we weren't sure what to expect after the first day.  we were afraid the other beach would disappoint.  but it didn't.  it was better in a way because there weren't any reefs right off the beach, so you could just swim without worrying about hitting one.  (anna scraped her leg on a reef the first day.)  and the water was still completely blue.  we walked on the beach to this rocky area and found fish and crabs and lizards and loads of coral.

it was good to relax those two days.  and everyone seemed so friendly and helpful.  like the first van driver who helped us find a place and didn't let the lady rip us off.  and then at the first beach, you can rent an umbrella and chairs and this little old lady sets it all up for you.  we had left our stuff in the hotel lobby yesterday while we were at the beach even though we had checked out, and when we came back in the evening to get our things, melissa asked the lady if she knew where we could take a shower.  and she took us downstairs to the hotel laundry room, where they have three shower stalls, and she let us all take a shower before we had to leave.  i thought it was especially nice of her considering we turned down her offer earlier in the day to keep our room until we left for only another NT$1000 - which is only like $30. 

but the vacation-within-a-vacation had to end some time.  so we caught the bus back to taipei at 11 p.m., and arrived in taipei at 4 a.m.  i think i slept 15 minutes.  not..............too..............good.

and today is it.  we've gotta get ready to go.  i don't really know what to say about being here this last month.  it was an experience.  definitely an education.  i keep feeling like we got schooled in a lot of ways.  it's surprising how survival instincts kick in when you're in a place so completely unlike home and where the majority of the majority don't speak any english.  it forces you out of your comfort zone for sure.  even in small ways.  we hail taxis now.  we can use squat toilets.  we can drive scooters.  we can fake understand chinese like nobody.  we stay in hostels.  it makes you appreciate how easy it is to live in your home country, where you can order something how you want, you can ask questions and understand the answers, you can talk freely with the brothers and sisters in the congregation, you can read a map, labels, menus.  but being here also showed us that we can do it.  we can be in a place like this and get by somehow.  you survive.  we're a little proud of ourselves, i think.

i know we're going to miss taiwan, and i don't think we've ruled out coming back again.  we're going to miss the people we've met and the places we've seen.  i'm leaving feeling like there's more i wanted to do, which is a good way to feel, i think.  it means you still want to see more of a place, rather than being over it.

i don't know if we could've survived here without anna.  she's doing so good.  her chinese is incredible to me - even though she'll say otherwise.  she took such good care of us; we couldn't have asked for anything more.  i know it must've been a pain for her, but you'd never know it.  she made sure we saw and experienced as much of taiwan as we possibly could in a month, and i'll always be grateful for that.

we're grateful for all the people we've been able to spend time with - charlie, melissa, eber, myellen, brett, zoe, alan, jenny, ruby.  they really made us feel welcome and at home.

i guess there's not much more to say.  we loved it here.  we also hated it here, but taiwan will do that to you.  maybe part of us will miss the unwelcome smells of wanhua, the 6 a.m. parades with bomb-like fireworks, the near misses with scooters, the gawking stares, the questionable hygiene.  but maybe not......  regardless, this trip will stay with us forever, i hope.

here's some pictures from kenting, as well as from some other things we did over the weekend:

these are some pictures from saturday night in shida.

we love this little boy, but he absolutely hates us.

the sister who studies with zoe had us over for lunch on sunday.  she made this sticky rice cooked inside bamboo leaves.

the congregation had a going-away party for the 2 special pioneers in their hall who have been re-assigned.  they played this game - it seemed like a tricky simon-says.

in baisha

at the little bar off the beach in baisha

our second day at the beach

thanks for reading, everybody.  we can't wait to see you!

there's always a siren singing you to shipwreck.

i wasn't able to upload the video i wanted from that parade in wanhua saturday night.  and then i recorded video of the tea serving in jiufen on tuesday and wanted to be able to share that too.  so i uploaded them both to youtube, but you can only view them if you use the links below.

http://youtu.be/LwAPXm31f9c

http://youtu.be/C30lg7d88Mc


the second one is a bit of a mess, but you get the idea!  :-)

there are angels in your angles. there's a low moon caught in your tangles.

wow.  it feels like i've really been lazy about this lately, but the last few days have been go, go, go.  we went back to the shilin night market on monday, visited jiufen on tuesday, danshui on wednesday, and maokong today.  it's hard to believe that we now have less than a week here.

first though, let me describe to you the essence of luxury.  there's these places in ximen called u2 where you can rent a movie, you're led to a private room where you can control the lighting, temperature and volume.  they start your movie for you and bring you your complimentary drink in a glass on a tray.  and if you want popcorn, they'll gladly (literally) pop a bag of orville redenbocker (do i even know how to spell that?) for you and give you the bag.  and you watch your movie in peace and with luxury as far as the eye can see.  and this fabulousness only costs like $5 a person.  why hasn't someone in america built one of these??

on to the neety greety.  jiufen - like "jeeofun".  it's about an hour by bus or train from the city.  it used to be a huge gold mining town, but then sort of became a ghost town until it had a renaissance.  now, you can shop along the narrow mountainside streets and stop in a tea house for a real tea drinking experience.  the views in jiufen were incredible, the weather was perfect, the shopping was really cool and unique, and the tea house was just beyond anything.  i don't know how we stumbled on that place.  we had tea that's picked only once a year in the mountains.

the view from jiufen

i decided to go for it here.  this lady was making little fried things with onions and shrimp inside.  they were really good.

the view at night

at the tea house, we got to sit and drink our tea with the perfect view.

 

danshui - like "danshway".  the river runs down from the mountains to the sea, and danshui sits right on the water.  we decided it's like the taiwanese cape may or any such new england coastal town.  it has a boardwalk feel, plus buddhist temples, a spanish fort, cafes and a street market.  there's also a victorian-style building, now a restaurant known as red castle, and you have to climb 106 narrow stone steps to reach it.  but from the veranda and/or porches, you have a clear view of the coastline.  the spanish fort is fort san domingo.  it was built by the spanish around 1640 and later occupied by the dutch.  more recently, it was used by the british consulate.

for some reason, street food finally seemed do-able when we were in danshui.  these are strawberries.  they have a hard candy coating on the outside and the strawberries themselves are soft.  they also put a cherry tomato on there at the end, but we didn't eat that.  because that's gross.

these are cool.  they're just potato chips on a stick, but still......

i think this is longshan temple.  it wasn't clear.  i just love how the temples are sort of stuck in places.  i mean, they were there first, but now they seem squeezed in.  they're so colorful.  and they smell amazing! 

red castle.  we decided to challenge ourselves with the 106 steps.  totally worth it.  even though we'd already walked a million miles that day.....

ashley on the veranda of red castle.

one of the buildings at fort san domingo.

today we went to the top of taipei 101 - the second tallest building in the world.  the elevator to the top is the fastest in the world.  we were on the 89th floor in something like 10 or 15 seconds.  it was a little hazy today, but you could see for miles and miles regardless.  on a clear day, it'd be crazy.  from there, we headed out of the city to maokong.  from the mrt station, you can ride these "gondolas" to maokong, where they grow tea.  in maokong, there are tea houses and cafes and trails.  you can smell the tea as you walk along!  there's no noise, no traffic.  it's perfect.  we did a short trail through some of the little farms to this temple on the mountain.  from the temple you can see back across the city.  on our way back, the timing was just right - we were able to see the city all lit up. 

taipei 101

the maokong gondolas

view from the temple

a view from the cafe we had tea at after the trail - you can see taipei 101 in the background.

 the last three days have been really special.  we'll never forget the tea house in jiufen - the husband is an artist and makes sculptures and tea pots and the wife taught us how to properly serve tea.  and we got to sit and enjoy the tea for as long as we wanted, with the city lights, mountains and coast right outside the window.  danshui makes you forget you're in taiwan in a weird way.  it felt like all the places at home that we love - cape may, rockland, camden.  and then maokong.  we saw the little women picking tea.  we saw little rice paddies.  it made us want a little more of this place - to go a little further off the path.  the city is so convenient and it has it's charms, but for us, it's nothing compared to these other places. 

it's so cool to sit in a cafe in maokong, overlooking the valleys and the city, having a chinese tea, surrounded by people speaking chinese, but listening to french music playing in the background.  we like those moments of weird fusion here. 

and if you feel just like a tourist in the city you were born, then it's time to go. and you find your destination with so many different places to call home.

we just got back from the memorial and i wanted to share some pictures before tomorrow comes and i forget.  wanhua congregation had to use another kingdom hall for memorial this year.  the congregation that met before us had an attendance of 235.  and they only have 80 publishers!  we had about 135 in attendance.

melissa, jenny and ashley

us with ruby and ai

with brett, tiffany and zoe