Puli Adventure

Saturday, January 19, 2013:

We woke up at 4am today!!! We wanted to go to the mountains to see the sunrise. It was a wonderful view but with all of the fog we didn't get to see the sunrise. Don't worry though because we were still able to have a fun filled day with many friends, teachers from Ying Pei. 

(Warning this blog post has so many pictures it might take about an hour to get through it.)

 Our view from on top of a mountain in Puli. Beautiful view but pretty cloudy.

 Many people wake up early for a chance to see the sunrise.

 Some of our group. The teacher on the far left is Noah's homeroom teacher, she is so sweet.

  You can see that it is getting lighter but still the sun hasn't poked through the cloud cover.

 

 The trees are starting to bloom... So pretty.

 This is the most sunrise we will see this morning.

Next stop breakfast

 Time for breakfast... it is a famous pork and mushroom filled rice ball. The rice is purple, it is grown that way. It is supposed to be higher in vitamins and overall it tasted great.

 Next stop Sun Moon Lake

 Beautiful view with a happy little boy.

 Just playing around.

 The next four pictures are our teacher friends that brought us on this fabulous outing for the day. These are all such great people and I am glad that they are our friends.

 Headed down to the lake.

 Note the tall tower in the background behind the boats. It is the pagoda that we will visit later.

 Now we are making our way around the lake. We will stop at many places along the way.

 This temple is for the match maker god. 

 The dragon represents male

 The phoenix represents female

 Now we are back at the shore for a little play time and photos.

 I love this picture of Noah. He just can't stand to not be in the water... 

  Sun Moon Lake visitor center

 Even the teachers act like children once in a while. With Justin being the biggest child in the group. The goal was exactly what you see. To see how many could get there feet off the ground at once.

 This is our group! We had so much fun today.

  Next stop walking on water!?!?!?

 This is so cool. It is literally walking on water. The grass is so thick that it is able to hold up walking planks that we can walk on. But the water is always just at the tips of your toes so you must be careful not to get wet. I have a video of this so you can see how it is done. You can check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D651e7lzTaA&feature=youtu.be

  Next stop the pagoda at Sun Moon Lake

 Climbing the stairs to the top.

 OK, I couldn't make it to the top... I am afraid of heights so I only made it about 4 stories up. But the view from up here is amazing.

Safely back on solid ground... Justin is waving from the top story.  What you can't see him? Well I will try to zoom in.

Can you see him now?

 How about Noah? He is on the 3rd floor. 

I guess Justin and Noah had enough climbing the stairs and decided this would be a good opportunity for a little Kung Fu fighting.  Watch out those flying kicks can be dangerous.

   Next stop food! 

 What can I say? Delicious doesn't quite do it justice. It has been 6 months since we have seen a burger like this.... it was OMG good!!!

 And to drink I had the best tea!

   Next stop paragliding... 

 Don't worry we kept our feet on the ground. We just came to watch others take a flying leap off the top of the mountain. It was very cool.

 Noah wants to have a turn... "No way" says mom! Maybe when you are 18!

 This is how it works.... First they suit up.

 Then they lay out the parachute, with help from the girlfriends.

Next wait for a gust of wind....

The parachute will catch the wind and...

Take a flying leap off the mountain top! 

 Now Noah really wants to go!

 There are so many! I don't know how they keep from hitting each other but somehow they do. It is so beautiful. 

   Next stop the giant freeway overpass 

 This freeway is the tallest in Taiwan. It is huge but I know it is hard to tell from the picture so just take my word for it.

   Next a little sword fighting!

   Noah wins!

 Now Noah will have to fight his daddy! Oh no... who will win this battle?

 I guess it was Justin!

Don't worry Noah... you are still a champion to me!

Just a little afterthought.... Was it the Energizer bunny or the Duracell bunny?

Another great weekend thanks to all of our wonderful friends in Taiwan... We thank you so much for taking us along on these fun outings.

Taiwanese Wedding

We were invited to a Taiwanese wedding this past week. We were very curious how they work, what they wear and how similar it was to an American wedding. We arrived at the brides house early so we could visit with the family. The bride is a friend from Justin's school and her family are very nice. Her mother is the principle at a junior high school in Catoun and her three sisters, Cora, Allison and Abby, are all very sweet and spoke English very well.  

The wedding starts by the groom and his best men, there are six total because six is a lucky number, arriving at the brides house to pick her up. But before he can get to his bride he must complete several challenges. Since they were short on time there were only 5 challenges for this wedding.

 This is the groom arriving. He is being met by one of the brides sisters, the brides mother and the paparazzi.

 This is challenge number one. He must blow the orange ball into each of the bowls and finally into the last bowl before he can move on to the next task.

The groom and all of his best men getting the instructions on the game!

Lucky for the groom he has the help of all of his best men. This game was the responsibility of one of the best men, so much pressure to get it correct... Oh and each bowl is filled with flour so every time he blows the ball flour goes everywhere especially all over the best mans face! But no worries about the mess because it is all in the name of love.

 This beautiful little girl is a family friend. She will be carrying the brides dress all evening. The groom is in the middle and one of the best men is on the right.

The next challenge for the groom, before he can enter her house, is to say I love you in six different languages. But the hard part is saying it loud enough that she can hear it from inside the house. It took at least three attempts but with the help of his best men, on the final attempt  they were loud enough and he was allowed to pass.

 In this task he had to write down the rules he will follow in there marriage. This paper will be kept by the bride for their entire marriage and he is supposed to follow it. Some of the things he wrote were: He would come home on time every night. He would help with the house hold chores. He would call her every day. He would tell her that he loves her every day. There were eight total but I can't remember all of them. He would then sign these rules with his thumb print.

The next two tasks I was unable to take photos of because there were so many people and not enough room. One of them involved moving dry beans from one plate to another using chopsticks. And the final task he had to figure out which shoes the bride was going to wear for the wedding. I guess he eventually guess correctly because then they came downstairs together.

 The bride wore a western style wedding dress. She was very beautiful and the groom very handsome.

 Now the bride and groom must give thanks to the brides parents before they can move to his house for the remainder of the wedding. 

 Now it is time for the bride to leave. They hold this basket type thing over her head to shield her from the god's. She is so beautiful and getting so much attention that she needs to be shielded so that the gods do not become upset.  

 In between this and the end of the wedding I didn't take any pictures, sorry. We went to the grooms house where they said thank you to his parents and worshiped, all in private. Then we waited until 6:30 for dinner... and it was an amazing dinner, it was at least 7 or 8 courses. There was live music and lots of wine and good company. It was a huge event, at least 200 people at the reception. So overall it was very different but similar in many ways to an American wedding.

 The bride and groom with her parents and his parents.

Another busy weekend

 This weekend was another busy one. We were invited, by our friend Adrian, to see a birthday celebration in Guoxing for one of the gods. This only happens once every 50 years so it is a big deal. It was cloudy and rainy when we arrived and since it was mostly outside we didn't stay for long. The town where the celebration took place was up in the mountains, the views were spectacular.

This is a dragon, on the table behind Noah, I believe it was made from rice. 

After leaving the birthday celebration Adrian took us to Puli to the Chung Tai Chan Monastery, another Buddhist temple. Of course it was another amazing place. Taiwan is a beautiful place to live. 

These paper lanterns line the sidewalks outside the temple and the ceiling inside. They are so pretty.

 Happy Buddha! 

The temple guardian, Bodhisattva Wei Tuo

       

These 4 statues are the "Four heavenly kings". The one on the top right represents North, top right represents South, bottom left represents East (and is Justin's favorite because he his holding a snake) and the bottom right is West. The Four Heavenly Kings, each 12 meters tall, stand in the four corners of the room.  Each king's head has the faces of all four kings, it means " one in four and four in one".

This sculpture is made from red granite. It is the Shakyamuni Buddha, "The Transformation Buddha" or "The Great Majestic One".  

Noah and Justin took turns at the bell pavilion. Striking the bell brings awakening to their own nature of wisdom and purity. Or at least that is what they say.

Beautiful wood work. 

Elephants standing guard, there was one on each side of the door.

Justin loved all of the topiary trees.

After the Buddhist temple we went to see a beautiful flower display  I think it was called the sea of flowers. So many flowers and colors

 These silly guys decided that they would take a rest in the middle of the purple flowers. :)

 Love birds! Yes I know we have been together for 11 years now but I still love this silly guy.

After all of the beautiful sight seeing today we headed to do some crab and lobster fishing! So much fun hanging out with Adrian. 

They took turns catching crab but not to many. I think we ended up with 7 or 8 crabs. Then Justin caught a lobster!!! Now we have enough for dinner!!!

Lobster soup, crabs, fried rice and lamb... That was a yummy meal!