Hikes! Stairs, stairs everywhere...

It's been awhile since I last updated, but I've been sort of busy, and mostly lazy! I've been on a couple of hikes - Taiwan is really beautiful and it's so nice that there are hiking trails everywhere! The first hike we went on I totally forgot my camera, but it was about 4 hours and lots of stairs!!

The one I have pics of here are from the second hike which was longer (5 hours), and higher, and of course - MORE STAIRS! It's pretty incredible that someone(s) went to so much trouble to build stone steps up and down the mountains here! But it's probably much better from an erosion standpoint...

By the end of the hike I was soooooo gross and anticipating soreness (the previous hike left me with useless calves for 3 days!) so it was a welcome relief to stop at the hotsprings afterwards. I had never been to a naked hotspring before (men in one, women in the other), so that was a new experience! But I'm trying to get braver these days haha. The hot pool was too hot for my liking, the cold pool was too cold, but Tass and I went between the two and after 30 minutes we felt really nice. Best of all - no soreness afterwards!

To typhoon or not to tyhoon, that is the question...

There were predictions of not one, but TWO typhoons set to hit the island this week! At first they were saying Wednesday, then Thursday, and now it's Friday and there's not even a stiff breeze, at least where I am...

The media in every country tends to make a big deal about the "storm of the century" (Toronto people, remember "Snowmageddon"? Total bust) Anyways here we get typhoons and yes, they can cause a lot of damage as we've all seen on news reports, but in Taipei we're lucky and protected by the mountains, so it's much easier to get excited about typhoon days! (Think snow day but with no snow and more crazy winds and rain. But most importantly, no work!)

My friend Shaun and I decided to tempt fate and say that no, the typhoon(s) won't arrive on Wednesday, so let's go to the beach! He took the High Speed Rail into Taipei, then we grabbed another train to Fulong Beach. It's just over an hour away by express train, so by midday we were there and ready for some sun! The train costs $3.28 CAD per person and was rather comfortable.

Weeeeee! We're off to the beach!

Some more views from the train...

These are graves - usually set on some nice piece of real estate with a good view.

Since there was a typhoon in the vicinity, there were big waves farther out that surfers were taking advantage of, "swirls" which I think means undercurrent - as in be careful of swirls!! - and a lot of debris washed up on the beach. Fulong is normally a pretty clean beach (in my memory) but that day we found a razor blade, a syringe (minus the needle part), a diaper, and I'm sure there were plenty of other treasures. Luckily all the garbage was on the beach, and NOT in the water. The clouds were much cooler than I've ever seen before too! Joanne told me that the nice weather we had was the "calm before the storm" - perfect blue skies and hot sunny weather. My favourite!

Now it's two days later and it seems that the typhoons have missed us...or maybe will hit on the weekend, but I think they've swirled away to other places. A typhoon day would have been nice, because then I would have people to hang out with, but in good news it's given me a chance to update my blog!

Stantec - bringing people together across the world!

So guess who is in town? Joanne Peng!! Very exciting to see a familiar Toronto face here in Taipei. She invited me out to lunch and was like:

J: "What kind of food do you like?"

L: "I will eat most things, but not really pork...or chicken on bones...or dark meat... Maybe somewhere with vegetarian options is good."

J: "Really?? Vegetarian?? You're vegetarian?"

L: "Well no, but I'm a bit picky. I eat vegetables and seafood!"

J: "Ok...."

L: "Anywhere is fine, I will try anything :) "

Anyways, luckily we stuck to the place Joanne originally had in mind, and it was soooooooo good! She said it's Dim Sum style, which I don't think I've ever had before!

The restaurant is at the top of Sogo, a huge department store here. In fact, there are two Sogos, and they are across the street from each other! We went to the newer green Sogo.

The view from the top was pretty!

Us about to eat our feast!

Joanne took care of the ordering, because the menu was all in Chinese!

I've completely forgotten the name of this, but it's FAMOUS (the word famous is very commonly used here and could usually be replaced with 'popular' but in this case they apparently are famous in Taiwan)

Joanne taught me the proper way to eat this. On your mini spoon you put some ginger and vinegar, then you dip the dumpling in the mix and take a small bite. The reason you take a small bite is that inside there is a soup-like liquid, and if eaten too soon out of the steamer basket, you can burn yourself. Once you've taken the first bite, you blow on it "hoo hoo" and then pop the rest in your mouth. It was really good! Glad I decided to eat pork that day!

Health Check!

In order to get your ARC (Alien Resident Certificate) there are a few things that need to be done, but the first step is getting a resident visa and to do that, you need a health check. Since I already had a job lined up before I arrived, technically I could have started the process in Canada, but what would have taken days/weeks there, only takes about an hour here. There are sooooo many foreign workers here, not just English teachers. There are many workers here from the Philippines, Indonesia, etc, so the hospital has really worked hard to make the process easy and efficient.

Upon arriving at the hospital, you fill out your basic health info, get photos taken in the on-site photo booth, paste them to the page, and take a number to see the doctor. I tried to get there first thing at 9am on Monday morning, but you know me and my struggle to be on time...so I got there at 9:20 or so, and there were about 20 people in front of me. Luckily it didn't take too long to see the doctor. He didn't really ask anything different than the form other than "could you be pregnant?" (Nooooooooo.) To make small talk while he tapped away at the computer, I told him that I had come the previous week, but got there right as they took a lunch break. In pretty good English he said, "That's ok, shit happens," with a big grin. I almost laughed out loud, because it was not really appropriate to the context and not all the professional, but he was just so pleased with his knowledge of English sayings that it was funny.

Then it was off to the counter to pay - it cost $1660 NTD which is about $55 CAD.

Once I'd paid, I was handed a stack of forms in a folder for the various health professionals I would see. My favourite paper was this one.

You see? How easy! They check your height, weight, eyesight, take blood, do a chest x-ray and then....FINISHED! And it's ready to be picked up in a week.

Welcomes, Farewells, and Birthdays - just a regular Saturday night

Saturday night was a real mash-up of a night! It started off with an MRT trip to Luzhou to see Chris and Irene who just welcomed baby Kiyomi into the world a week ago. Chris is actually the person who helped me get a job at Lakeside when I first arrived in 2006. He was friends with Mike, the guy I was staying with, and told Mike his school was hiring. On the Monday of my interview, Chris came to pick me up on his motorcycle and drive me to the school. It was my first motorcycle experience in Taiwan and it was so fun! Since that first day we became good friends and I consider him the older brother I always wanted. Awwwww.

It's been 4 years since I last saw Chris, but when he picked me up at the MRT station it was just like no time had passed and coincidentally, it was my first scooter ride in Taiwan since arriving! Annnnd it all comes full circle! haha

After a visit with Irene and Kiyomi, Chris and I headed back into the city to grab dinner and meet up for a friend's farewell party. Since we didn't get downtown until about 9:30, many of the restaurants were starting to close in that area. We walked around for a bit, then turned into one alley and there, glowing like a beacon, was a Domino's pizza! We ordered a pizza, bought a bottle of wine, and set up shop in the park. One thing I love about here - you can buy alcohol everywhere, AND drink it everywhere...except while driving.

Our picnic in the park

It was Jennifer's farewell party that night at Maybe bar, so we met up with her, and also Dominic who used to work at Lakeside as well. It's crazy, but there must be something here to prevents people from aging!

To show you what I mean, he's a pic of Dom and Chris in August 2006

And here's a few more that were taken on Saturday - 6 years later!!!

Jennifer, me, Dom

Chris, me, Jennifer

This was also Chris' 36th birthday celebration, so we headed to On Tap for some more drinks where the owner shared the same birthday. Ohhhhhh jager bombs! Then somehow it was 4am. Time flies when bars never close - fun times!

Chris, me, Johnna - clearly surprised that Chris is still out and functioning ;-)

In other news...jetlag has now started to kick my butt. I was doing so well for the first couple of days, but now it`s after 3am and I`m wired!!!

Goodbye New York, New York. Hello ATT 4FUN!

Close to Taipei 101 there used to be an area called New York, New York. There was a movie theatre, Western restaurants, and lots of designer shops. In the past 3 years they've totally revamped that area and renamed it ATT 4FUN. Not sure what it means, but there is still a movie theatre, Western restaurants and designer shops BUT there an exciting new addition - beautiful rooftop patio, Sita, overlooking 101!

Ming and I met her friend Tass there for dinner. We grabbed drinks and some snacks on the roof while we waited for our table to be ready at Rama, the Thai restaurant downstairs. Rooftops and patios in general aren't very common here, as daytime temps during the summer can be crazy hot and humid (average daily humidity of about 80%), and when you're not sweating, you're getting wet from the rain (works out to about 15 rainy days a month). So needless to say, when you get a great rooftop, it's cause for excitment!

Despite the fact that there was TORRENTIAL downpour for a few hours in the afternoon, our cusioned seats were dry - thanks to the massive umbrellas!

Forgive the poor picture quality, but this is just to give you an idea...

Tass (L) and Ming (R)

Mmmmm our pumpkin curry at Rama (so Taiwanese to take pics of food, but come on, it's cool!)

Infinity pool on 10th floor - pool party next weekend there!

Wulai

On my first full day in Taipei I decided to walk over to the Renai Hospital to get my health check done (needed in order to get my ARC - Alien Resident Certificate), but when I arrived at 11:20, I found out the hours were from 9-11, and 1:30-4:30. Forget wasting the whole day at the hospital! Johnna and I decided to beat the ridiculous heat and head to Wulai, a small town in the mountains that is famous for hot springs.

Getting there by MRT (Mass Rapid Transit - the subway/bus system here) was pretty quick, easy and cheap. It's just under an hour or so one way, and costs about $1.30 CAD.

There are hot springs at the hotel/spas, but the much more economical (free) and fun option is the river! Long ago someone discovered that there were natural hotsprings under the ground, and by moving rocks into a bath-like formation, you could sit comfortably for hours!

We grabbed some beers at the 7-11 and headed down to the river. Johnna made a "western-sized" bath for the two of us to sit in, and by moving rocks we were able to adjust the temperature. As Johnna said, "it's not a science" so at times we were hotter on one side than the other, but it was definitely more enjoyable than sitting in a communal hotel pool!The water seemed muddier than on previous visits, but we attributed this to lots of rain lately. Also the photo colous isn't great, because as soon as we arrived it clouded over (typical), but you can get the idea.

Part of the town/village of Wulai

Johnna hanging out in our rock bath

A plumbing nightmare!

Some locals having fun in another part of the river

Wildlife sighting!

Overall a fantastic day and great way to get back into the swing of things!

Surreal is very real

It's so crazy that after leaving Toronto an absolute mess (yes, I'm a crier) and falling asleep on a plane (and waking up, falling asleep, waking up, changing planes, wandering a couple of airports, falling asleep, eating some food, watching some movies, falling asleep, waking up)that I've arrived back in Taiwan. The taxi driver, Ms. Liao, picked me up at the airport and in broken English grabbed my excessive baggage, herded me to the car, filled my water bottle and plied me with snacks and noodle soup despite my protests that I wasn't hungry. She proudly told me that she still had the Canadian flag pin my mom and dad had given to her on their visit in 2009. She put on the English radio station and whisked me into the city. Listening to the radio station play all the same songs that are playing in Toronto it was hard to believe that I was back on the other side of the world. Everything looked the same as when I left 3 years ago, from the highway at least, and it was much less intimidating that my first arrival in 2006. When Ms. Liao dropped me off at my friend Ming's place, we hugged excitedly and it felt like no time had passed. Isn't it great to have that kind of relationship? I feel so lucky to have met such amazing people that Taiwan really does feel like a second home.