this is how a parking lot should look, yes, this is good although a few more bicycles would make it even better
the view from Brent and Jessica's place is pretty nice
Pretty low key day here which was nice, almost felt like I was relaxed and on vacation for most the day. Chia-Ru's sister (Jessica), brother-in-law (Brent) and nephew (Jeremiah) and niece (Sydney) are moving back from the US to Taiwan, they are somewhere in the air as I type this up. They came to the states back in Aug last year to raise support for his missionary work here in Taiwan and to get the kids in a US school for a while which really helps them stay sharp with the two cultures and speaking fluently in both languages. It will be good to see them again soon, they are scheduled to arrive tomorrow night.
graveyard by the short-cut
Last time I was in Taiwan two years ago I stayed with them and traveled back and forth from Chia-Ru's parents house and theirs several times. We headed to their place in the early afternoon and I was pleased that I remembered the exact route there, even the shortcuts. I packed my cycling shoes, pedals, saddle and some tools so I could setup his bike and keep the legs used to pedaling and the arse used to sitting on the skinny little seat. Bike setup and jumped on for a 50 minute ride, it was much needed given my calves are still hurting from running all those stairs yesterday. We spent some time cleaning up the place after I rode then made sure their scooter was ready to use when they get here.
Later in the afternoon Chia-Ru took me to one of her favorite hangouts when she was a girl, the National Tsing Hua University. She and her friends used to hang out and check out all the cute college guys and eat at the cafeteria, may sound odd eating at the cafeteria but we walked through it today and the food looked pretty top notch to me. This place is pretty huge, it is one of if not the most prestigious university in Taiwan, Wiki says it has 7 colleges, 17 departments and 22 independent graduate institutes in the university. Pics from the university after the video of some local nightlife.
Here is some family entertainment provided by a travelling show. Kids and adults of all ages gathered around signing and enjoying the show, this sort of thing in the states would not be family friendly I suspect. I can only imagine the reaction in Overland Park / Leawood if this thing rolled in to say Town Center at night and started up!
main south entrance of the university, like the trees
so many buildings, this one such a small part of it, all the buildings were pretty cool
Chai-Ru reflecting on her childhood where she came here to relax with friends at this nice lake on campus
the campus was full of ponds and walkways
I know where I will be going if I move here, need to learn the language!
one of the many dorms on campus
this is one fancy hotdog found in the campus cafeteria
love the colored toast, the purple was from the sweet potato flour, not sure on the rest, and what is "entire toast"?
I liked this building
waterways throughout make this campus very peaceful
ahh, the building I liked was the Physics building
no idea why this tree was like this, must be trying to reshape it? It had new growth on the ends so it is not dead.
closer shot of the physics building
these smelled really good and were growing on trees
more flowers growing on trees
pretty sure this is where I could spend many years of my life learning, I would like this very much.
this made me chuckle, your not allowed to swim and playing ball with your dog in the water is right out
if I was naming this bird, I would call it "statue bird". This thing was so still, we watched it for at least 5 minutes until it moved it's eye ever so slightly. It must just stay frozen until it's prey comes into range.
This school was next to the university. Blue and Green uniforms, they were doing all kinds of organized events. What struck me as odd was that the university and this school were separated with pretty tall fencing topped with razor wire which is in the bottom right of the picture. Must be some history here as to why...
traffic is starting to pick up towards rush hour. some would call driving here crazy, but I have seen no accidents here yet compared to at least 2-3 each day in KC during rush hour. You really have to pay attention to drive here with all the people walking, riding bikes, scooters and cars. My guess is that since driving here requires a lot of attention to your surroundings drivers are focused on driving, not distracted with texting, shaving, eating or putting on make-up...
dinner at home. fried oysters, pork fried rice noodles, papaya and that veggie which has no translation name
I am not a runner. By most peoples standards I am in pretty good shape, but have me do something other than cycling and it is pretty sad how quickly I can become tired and sore. Don't have a bike here in Taiwan to ride yet and I my body is screaming for exercise so running has been the option to get the cardio cranked, that and several core workouts a day. Might get the bike situation fixed today, will see.
Chia-Ru and I headed to a small mountain in the city to run, the translation would be "18 sharp mountain". The place is pretty packed and the trails are either up or down, and lots of stairs, lots and lots of stairs. As I was suffering while running up a long set of stairs for the 3rd time I realized that if I was going to workout in a gym, this was my kind of gym, outdoors, on a mountain side. I had not eaten breakfast and was starting to crash so we stopped on the trail where a guy was selling fruit and tried to by two banana's. He would not take our money insisting we just take them and eat. Running up stairs like these was super hard, they are varying height and depth and went on for hundreds of stairs at a time. My legs were toast and my cardio was near redline, it was hard to stand after the last trip up, it felt great.
We were moving all day long it seemed from 6am to 10pm, on with the picture show from today.
the little mountain in the city is very popular in the mornings
young and old all out moving
there were people singing and dancing all around the mountain, very peaceful really
headed down one small section of stairs, these curved left and right all the way up and down
one of several shrines along the stairs and trails
small pavilion about 1/2 way up
you could see the city every once and a while through small openings in the trees
yoga / dance in another courtyard
people were out selling all kinds of fruits and veggies
so this is what a fresh star fruit looks like, very different than the ones I have seen at the stores back home
frying up the pork and pork fat for dumplings later
Chai-Ru and her parents preparing some sort of veggie for the dumplings, making a lot of dumplings
staircase at the place were we are having our wedding celebration dinner
table settings for dinner
killer menu pulled together, should be a good one
quick late lunch was pretty good for eating out, the authentic foods at home and in the markets are the best though
we stopped into a Costco to grab some supplies, the carts have these wheels on them designed to drop into the groves of the moving walkways which take you upstairs and downstairs of the building, pretty cool yet simple.
we went to a famous temple in downtown Hsinchu, it was crazy crowded, will have to find the name of it and update this
inside the temple were a lot of shines for worship, they were not to happy about me taking pics
closer pic of a smaller shrine
this Buddha was huge, the picture makes it look small
the food market at the temple was packed like a walmart on black friday
these food merchants make a ton of money, they are busy around the clock and have almost no overhead
we found a less busy corner to sit and eat
this looks sort of gross, but it was super tasty, had osters on the inside
one of the many menus, most dishes were about $1-2 US dollars
pork fat pastries with meat inside, these things were really really good
we finished off the night back at our wedding photo place to finalize the plans for the 28th,
