A trip to the mountains

There is sooooo much going on right now for us. We are busy almost every day, our house is a mess (Justin's attempt at packing) and when I am not going on an adventure or packing I am trying to finish up some work so I can ship my computer back to Arkansas. We are going on more adventures than I can post about lately. We have ten days before we return to Arkansas and five days before we head to Taipei for the first section of our trip home. So much to do but so little time.

Friday was the last day of school for Justin and Noah. On the last day of school there were two adventures happening at the same time! Noah went to Taichung with the entire 7th grade class. There were seven buses of children headed for an amusement park. To say that Noah enjoyed himself is an understatement. Not having his parents there to micromanage his behavior he was free! He has not stopped talking about this trip and how much fun he had.

For Justin and I, we headed to the mountains with a wonderful group of teachers. That is where the pictures will begin because I couldn't take any pictures of Noah since I wasn't there ;)

 Me (the huge American) with Gloria (Justin's director) the cute Taiwanese... Our size difference is amazing!

We are headed to the peak of that mountain. You can see on the picture below that it is 3217meters high or 10,554 feet!

Here are a few of the beautiful flowers we observed on our way up the mountain!

Yea!!! We are about half way there. We had to have frequent rests because it was hard to breath.

At one point we had to use a rope because the mountain was steep with little to hold onto.

 A beautiful view!

And of course our good friend, Adrian, was with us! We are going to miss him... we are trying to talk him into coming to visit us next summer! I hope he decides to. I would love for our family and friends to meet him.

What's with the Pepsi??? Well there are two reasons... First, the lower air pressure on the mountain makes the compressed gases to expand. This causes the Pepsi to become more bubbly and the snack packages to inflate like balloons. To drink the Pepsi is like drinking liquid Pop Rocks... Way too much fun for some silly science teachers! Second, Pepsi in Chinese means good luck or good fortune so to drink it on top of the mountain will bring us good luck all year or something like that ;)

We made it back down in one piece! Now we are headed to lunch.

 Yum...Yum...Yum!

Our last stop of the day is to a paper factory! It was pretty neat to watch them make paper by hand!

Surprise! We were not done yet... Adrian took us to a Chili's!!!!! This is our first time to eat at a Chili's in Taiwan... It was exactly the same as the one in Arkansas!

We have a couple of satisfied guys!

Let the countdown begin

Ok, Ok I know... we have been counting down for a couple of months now. But now that we are only three weeks away from returning home it is time for a real count down. As of today we have 22 days left in Taiwan.

We have been so busy recently, between trying to pack and spending time with friends, that I have fallen behind on this blog. I will try to post a couple pictures from each activity with a brief description so everyone can see what kind of fun we are having!

Here we go... Last Wednesday was Dragon Boat Festival... It is one of the two national holidays that students and teachers get the day off work/school. Last week I posted on the dragon boat races that the student participated in. Well the festival is very much like that event only larger. Unfortunately Nantou County is the only county in Taiwan that doesn't have races to observe. So several of Justin's co-workers decided to take us to do pottery, lunch, a paper church, a winery and for some fresh juice. I didn't get pictures of everything but I hope you can enjoy the photos we did take.

Here are some of the teachers that took us on our trip. 

Our work is done! 

Usually by the time we get around to lunch we are so hungry that we forget to take pictures of our food. Sorry, just know that it was delicious. Below is a photo of the winery that we stopped at. We bought some wine eggs... They were actually very good!

This is a cute little restaurant, not the one we ate at, but picture worthy because it is so cute.

Behind the cute teachers is the paper church. It was donated to Taiwan after the 9/21 earthquake.

Finally we made it home and one more task for the day. We have to stand eggs on their ends. If we can do it then we will have good luck for the next year... we did it! Lucky us!

Ok that all happened last Wednesday! I am telling you we have been very busy. So now for this past weekend. Justin, Noah and I went to Catoun for the day on Saturday to do a little shopping and have lunch.

After a full day of shopping and walking around town we were only home about five minutes before Adrian shows up to take us out for the evening. We went to a dragon dance concert in Taichung. It was performed by college students.  We weren't allowed to take photos and video in the performance but I can tell you it was amazing.

We have to wait in line to get tickets for the show. Adrian is picking on Noah only because Noah started it... but it is all done in fun! You can see what Noah did here.

After the show we headed to McDonald's for a late dinner. We ran into a few girls having a fun evening that wanted to to take a picture with us.

Ok that was our Saturday... Now on to Sunday. Justin got up early and went to the river with a student and his family. Noah and I didn't go because I am not into getting bit by mosquitos. They found a few critters...

Dragon Boat Race

We had another great weekend! This past weekend we went to Chiayi with Adrian.  Adrian's students were scheduled to participate in a dragon boat race. These students had never been in a boat before this month so they were very excited and nervous.

On our way to Chiayi we stopped at a rest stop for a drink. Look at what we found!

 Check out the size of these lollipops! 

Our next stop was at a lake but Justin wasn't allowed to participate in the walk! How did they know he was even going to be there? Well anyway, it was a beautiful lake.

Check out the size of this tree! 

Another great meal with wonderful company. Adrian knows all the good restaurants.

 

The next morning we headed to the harbor to watch the kids race the dragon boats. 

I love this handsome guy!

A couple of the kids (the ones that weren't too shy) took a break to take a picture with Noah.

There was so much activity at the harbor. Not just boat racing but dance performances and art competitions.

 These kids are so good... Even the littlest ones do a great job!

After the morning at the harbor we hung out with the children. Here Noah is playing with beetles with a fellow student.

At a nearby elementary school there is a butterfly specialist!  Who knew he would have the same hairstyle as Justin! It was very funny.

 Noah and the butterfly guy are digging for beetles and grubs... ewwwww!

 This is what Noah found.

Finally we made it home! It was a wonderful trip but these two are tuckered out.

Thanks Adrian for another great adventure!