Green Island!!!

So it's taken me a long time to actually finish blogging about my trip, and I have a couple more that I need to get done as well. So here goes!

We got to Green Island when it was almost dark. We rented scooters, and by the time we got to our hostel, the only gas station on the island was closed. So we basically didn't have a way to get around the island.

Our first night we walked around, did the typical touristy thing, and went shopping. Boy did we go shopping. We ran into a lot of foreigners including three Frenchmen. It was kinda funny because we normally don't see anyone in our little town of Feng Yuan.

The next morning we got up at the crack of dawn and went snorkeling. It was apart of our package, so we went out to this little snorkel shop, got our gear, and then scootered back to the beach. It was overcast, and a bit cold. The water seemed pretty menacing, and not very pretty. Our guide didn't speak a lick of English, and when we first got to the beach he handed us these leaves. We had no clue what they were for. Well, supposedly they were to wipe off our goggles, so we didn't have to spit on them to keep them from fogging up. Snorkeling was fabulous. Even though it was cloudy outside, the colors under the water were brilliant. We saw all kinds of fish, eels, coral, etc. Our guide kept on diving down, killing the clams, and eating them. I have to admit that I got sea sick because they made us wear life jackets.

After our little jaunt at snorkeling, we rode around the island. It's tiny, so it took about 1/2 hour to do so. Rachelle, my scooter partner, and I had an exhilerating time. Here's a video to document part of our wild ride around the island: Just kidding. I didn't know I was recording sideways, so I'll post them as soon as I figure out how to rotate them. So be excited!

Anywho, Green Island is a bit like Alcatrez in that Taiwan used to ship all of their prisoners to the prison there. The whole prison theme is felt throughout the island with restaurants, shops, and a tour of the prison.

Other awesome things: petting a real deer and all of the amazing beaches!

The trip home on the barf barge wasn't nearly as terrible, but it was nice to finally be on solid ground again. It was an amazing trip!

River rafting in Taiwan--not for the weak at heart

Yes, I rafted down that river. Yes, I had a near death experience. And yes, I obviously conquered the river (it may look tame, but a few river bends previous it was pretty vicious).

Saturday of our trip we woke up early to go river rafting: 6 Americans and one Taiwanese. We met up at the river rafting company's office to find ourselves with several hundred other Taiwanese natives. The difference between rafting in America and rafting in Taiwan is that everything is explained in Chinese, and that they don't have river rafting guides in each of the boats. For some strange reason we didn't expect it to be too bad, but man were we mistaken. We were put in a boat with another two Taiwanese, a Texan and a Frenchman. We happened to be the only people who spoke English, so they thought we should all be together. It was a blast. We started out being in front of all of the other rafts (there were at least 100) and we definitely prided ourselves about that fact. Everyone else seemed content on floating down the river, and engaging in seemingly high schoolish water fights. And everyone was bent on getting the Americans. Every time another raft got close to us, they tried to soak us. It never worked. Are you kidding me? No one's a match for a group of Americans (yes, I'm proud to be an American).

About two hours into the trip, and after two hours of very tame water, it was lunch time. They fed us rice boxes (which are amazing) and gave us time to mingle with the other participants (which we didn't). When it was time to continue on, they told us to link 4 rafts to a motor boat, so they could pull us through the rapids. As we tried to link our raft, we got lost and started floating down the river. No one came to our rescue so we braced ourselves for the worst. And I was incredibly proud of our group. We definitely conquered the rapids. It wasn't until we were half way through the rough part that a motor boat felt like they should hook us on to tow us through the rest. Bad idea. Really bad idea. As soon as we were hooked on they whipped us around into a rough rapid that tried to suck our raft in, and then yanked us out. The force flipped our raft over and we were caught in the currents. Gotta admit it was a pretty horrifying event. Some of us got trapped under the raft for a while, while others floated down the river, until some of the other rafts decided to give us a hand. I whacked my knee pretty badly on a couple of large rocks hidden just below the surface. By the time I got back into our raft, there were just 3 of the original 11. And we had 2 paddles. It would have been funny if it weren't so scary. By the end of the trip we ended up all getting back together minus a pair of eye glasses and a helmet that belonged to the Texan. All in all it was fabulous. I'd definitely go again.

After the rafting trip we had about 1 1/2 to get to Taitung where we needed to catch the last boat to Green Island. We thought there would be a bus stop at the end of the river rafting route, but boy were we wrong. We stood on a bridge and looked like hitch hikers--after a while, the thought actually crossed our minds. Fenny tried everything she could to find us a way to get to Taitung. She stopped a motorcyclist, old men with a flat-bed truck, and a tour bus. Finally we spotted a taxi driver who stopped and told us that he and his friend could take us to Taitung. He called his friend, and we waited....and waited....and waited.

What happened next was the most horrifying taxi ride I've ever been in my life. First of all the seat belts in the back seat were stuck underneath the seat, and we couldn't reach them with any effort. Our driver was insane. He sped at an incredibly high speed and passed cars when he shouldn't have. Seriously. Passed cars on our way up hills, over double yellow lines, and when it was obvious another car was coming our way. He got so close to another car once that left side mirror broke, and the glass went flying. It was seriously insane. But he got us to our boat--the Barf Barge--with time to spare.

More about the Barf Barge and Green Island later.

Laters!

Taiwan's Birthday...

Taiwan celebrated its birthday on October 10th (10/10), and I decided to celebrate by spending my 3 day weekend exploring its many beauties. Seven of the teachers and I, along with our good friend Fenny, who also works at Berhan, spent our time in Hualien, Ruesuei, and on Green Island. It was a much needed break from the stress brought on from everyday Berhanian life. Because the trip was so long and so much happened, I'm going to break it down into separate posts, so bear with me.

Day one:

Friday we woke up at 4:45 am to catch a train to Taichung, and then connect with a train that would take us to Hualien. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to go because my boss was going to substitute for my Saturday class, but he has been detained in America. But my friend, Dustin, was kind enough to merge classes with mine. Anyways, I wasn't sure if I was going to have seat on the 5 hour train ride, and it was seriously a miracle that I was able to get a seat.

Taiwanese trains are heavily air conditioned, and we all froze our bums off. Luckily I had thought to bring a long sleeve shirt, but it didn't help much. (Pictures of us walking to the train station at 5:15 am. We were able to see the sunrise).

Five hours later we finally arrived at our destination along with 50 billion other Taiwanese people: Hualien. Hualein is on the eastern coast of Taiwan and is the home to one of the most amazing natural beauties: Taroko Gorge...but, we didn't go there. We found two taxi drivers that were willing to drive us around the area, plus to our hostel 2 hours away for a little under $100 a car. Split between 7 of us, it was a pretty good deal and worth all the unwanted hassle of trying to take buses around and then finding a train to our hostel. They were at our beck and call. And they took us to these fabulous places:

The day ended with an insane drive through a very narrow and windy canyon. I felt like I was in a high-speed chase, the rate our cabs were driving. And I'm just grateful I made it to the hostel in one piece. Pretty amazing actually. That night, we were pretty exhausted, so we watched "Twister," which was on TV and went to bed.

An American in Taipei...and a German.

So, as you could probably tell from my past posts, typhoons have been attacking us from every direction. Well, not really, but they had ruined the two previous weekends. Two weekends ago, much to my surprise, and pleasure, I was able to take the 2 1/2 hour train ride from Feng Yuan, where I live, to Taipei, to visit an old mission buddy. (Wow that last sentence has a lot of commas). After my 2 hour class that I taught early Saturday morning, me and a group of friends began the trek to Taipei. After sitting on the hard floor of a train for 2 1/2 hours, I was ready to stretch my legs and see my friend.

Stephan and I served together in the Czech Prague Mission and happened to be in the same MTC group. He's from Heidelberg, Germany, and he's the only mission friend whom I haven't seen since I got home about 2 1/2 years ago. But I did happen to meet his sister at BYU, and she is now one of my good friends. Anyways, it was kind of random that we were able to meet now on the complete opposite side of the world.

I should probably explain why he is in Taiwan. Stephan is here studying at Northern Taiwan University, which is a sister school with his univeristy in Germany. For his business program he needed to do a semester abroad, so he decided to come to Taiwan.

Anyways, after we went to the Taipei Temple, he showed us around the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial. We walked up lots of stairs, took lots of pictures, and then met lots of Taiwanese school girls.

Stephan and I were talking on the steps and this group of girls were staring at us. One had a loud speaker and called out, "Hey!" So I decided to walk over and talk to them. And I ended up talking to them for at least 30 minutes. They taught me how to say "break dancing" in Chinese, and showed me their incredibly cool dance, and gave me their MSN names so we could instant message each other. The video below is their "dance that is healthy and good for you" (aerobic dance) that they have to perform in front of their entire school.

All in all it was a fabulous trip, and it was so good to see an old friend.

Ming tien jien!

Eggs galore!

So did you know that there are two days of the year that you can stand eggs on their tips? Well, I didn't, so my good friend Dustin enlightened me on Sept. 21, and showed me how it was done. It was pretty amazing!

I did these three all by myself.

The End.

Umm, take that back...

So I've decided that Typhoon Jangmi is definitely scary. The wind has been blowing pretty hard and pretty fast (103 mph), and the typhoon hasn't even landed yet. It's not like the past typhoons where there has been a lot of rain. Nope this one is mainly wind. And now I know why people don't like typhoons. It sounds like the roof could be torn off if it wasn't made of cement.

Typhoon Jangmi...

So I happen to be stuck in my fourth typhoon of the season, and it's supposed to be a large one. The last typhoon that hit Taiwan 2 weeks ago killed 12 people and caused a major bridge between Feng Yuan--the town I live in--and Holi to collapse. It has been estimated that it will take 3 years to replace. The public is in an outrage because news of Arnold Schwartzenager rebuilding a bridge that collapsed in California in only 18 days has caught wind.

Anyways, Typhoon Jangmi is supposed to be even larger, and will hit Taiwan today and tomorrow. For us at Berhan it's a welcome respite from teaching--granted that school is actually cancelled. So far the rain hasn't been too bad, but the wind has been gusting at extraordinary speeds.

When I've told secretaries in the past that I love typhoons, they always stare at me in horror. Why would I like something that kills hundreds of people, ruins buildings, and destroys many people's sources of income. Well, once I thought of it that way, it did seem pretty horrible that I like them so much. But on the other hand, how is that different from the snow storms of Utah, and the wind storms/rain storms of Seattle?

All in all, I love typhoons, and I really hope Jangmi will stick around for a while.