Christmas in Taiwan

Christmas has come to Taiwan. The weekend after American Thanksgiving when we were feeling like we were missing our own holiday traditions, it burst out everywhere. It reminded us of when we were children and the Christmas Season really did begin with Advent. So, yes, there were Santa breads (very cute) stuffed with chocolate custard and even lights and tiny Christmas trees. I do have to say that ours is probably the tiniest -- even smaller than the artifical tree that Mom Carano sent to us in the Marshall Islands.


Note the shirt box sized present
under the tree :)

When we were in Majuro for Christmas, we brought our favorite decorations for the "kids."  But as Christmas approached here in Taiwan, our dormitory looked pretty dismal. It reflected our own low spirits. We realized that maybe it was us who needed the lights and hope of the season as well as the decorations that reminded us of Christmas past. Amy's crumpled aluminum bell that comes out every year reminding us of how much time has passed. She is carrying on the baking tradition this year with her sons. It is difficult not to be there with them. Jeremy's ceramic peace dove candle holder made in elementary school was also left behind in Illinois. Somehow that bird  never wanted to be put away after Christmas and sits out all year round. This year he and Jodi will have their first Christmas with Tyler and have the joy of experiencing the wonder of it all through Tyler's fresh, new eyes. His first Christmas and he's crawling!

This being Taiwan though with many perspectives on the deities and holy people who give guidance on living a moral life, it would not be Christmas without a visit to the beautiful Confucian temple. A student in my class is helping give tours and invited us to join her on one of her tours. We visited the temple and them went on to Sunday evening Mass at St. Christopher's a Catholic Church that ministers to Filipina and Filipino guest workers. Taiwan is a very spiritual place occupied by traditional Taiwanese gods and newer interlopers such as Buddha and Jesus. Somehow during this season when I am overwhelmed by the lack of peace in the world I think we need all the prayers and intercessions they all can give us -- so light that candle, burn that incense and wage peace.

November in Taiwan

Thanksgiving

Sorry that it has been so long since our last blog. The month of November became extremely busy with classes, meeting new people and going new places. As Thanksgiving approached, we started to wonder what we would do this year. Amercian Thanksgiving is not a holiday in Taiwan, so on "black" Friday Susan had class. As the day approached,iIt seemed that traditional Amercian food was out. We didn't see a turkey anywhere and we didn't have an oven to cook a turkey anyway even if we found one. Simpathetic Taiwanese friends said there are turkeys around and ususally people order cooked turkeys from "American style restaurants. As we were mulling our options, we received two invitations for Thanksgiving dinners - one from the American Institute in Taiwan (US State Department) and another from an NTU Christian student organization. We attended both and they did have turkey. We even had wild rice dressing at the AIT dinner. It was delicious! Again we are struck by the concern our friends in Taiwan have for us -- asking us if we miss our families and friends (we do!) and if we would be joining with others to celebrate this holiday. We are very thankful for their kind concern.

Travel Show Extravaganza!!!!!!

Because we are hoping to be able to visit some other Asian cities while we are here in Taiwan, we attended the yearly travel show here in Taipei. We have not attended these type of travel expositions in the US so we have nothing to compare this event with those in the US. We thought the whole of Taipei must be interested in obtaining some travel bargains. It was packed. We were one of the few Americans to attend on Saturday -- they may have had more information on the popularity of the event and stayed away. We were able to make contacts for future travel and even obtain tickets for a very reasonable price. It was worth it to see how each country was promoting itself. We even saw a promotion for Hawai'i for Hawaiian Airlines and a major hotel chain -- I think it was Jodi's former employer. We foolishly thought there might be peopel from Hawai'i -- they were dressed in Hawaiian shirts, playing Hawaiian music, but no -- they were local Taiwanese drumming up business for travel to Hawai'i.




Travel Show



Day in Keelung and the Gold City

We were hungry for water -- the ocean that is. Early November was very wet so it was not the rain variety that we were thirsting for. Tin the young man that Claude is tutoring invited us to go to Keelung, a harbor on the northeast coast of Taiwan with him and his girlfriend. Keelung is about as large as Taipei population wise, but less developed in some ways such as no MRT, so Tin drove us all around Keelung and the surrounding areas. One of the interesting things we did that day was to visit a former gold mining region in the mountains above Keelung Harbor. It was operated by the Japanese during the time that they occupied Taiwan, so there are historical buildings from that era and an interesting historical video that had interviews workers from that era and when the mine was turned over to Taiwanese.

Mountains near Keelung


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Lunch in the market

We had to climb for our dessert. Why is this couple smiling?

 

Keelung night market for dinner.

Danshui (Tamshui in Taiwanese)

Disability Fair

 

The Band.

We had another delightful afternoon in Danshui with Yi-Hung. When we stepped off the MRT, there was a disability fare to inform local people about resources for people with disabilities. I think this was one month after these events in Urbana.



Disabilities Fair





Yi-Hung knows all the interesting places to visit as well as where to find delicious food. The weather was cool that day so we had an opportunity to visit some interesting historical sites dating from the Portuguese, Dutch, and English occupation. It is very good traveling with Yi-Hung helps negotiate buses, etc. and always has interesting insights about the local history. We were blessed with a beautiful sunsetwe and ate delicious hot soup and dumplings. It was a great day ending.