Taiwan has endless tasty fruits!! I’ve compiled a list of just a few of the mouth watering fruits over the past year.
I’ll add a couple more posts about Taiwan at my leisure in the coming months…I guess these posts are for the future me so that I will not forget anything about my awesome experiences in Taiwan!
Time sure does fly fast! My second year of teaching in Taiwan has already come to a close. It was hard to say goodbye to all the students and faculty at ICA, but I look forward to seeing some of them again soon. I cannot fully express how wonderful of an experience teaching and living in Taiwan was for me. I definitely put myself outside my comfort zone by moving half way across the world to a place where I am essentially illiterate. However, while living here I learned a lot about myself, learned how to be independent and ok with white noise (the unknown language being spoken all around you and never fully knowing what is going on), became more confident in myself in my abilities and what I believe, and gained several very close lifelong friends. Living abroad has also opened my eyes and mind to being more globally aware. I am now seeking out news articles about other countries and looking at minority issues with a different light. I plan to make traveling not a luxury and a rare occurrence in my life, but a necessity. I never would have imagined five years ago that I would ever live in another country for an extended amount of time, but here I am moving back home after two years in Asia. I have no idea what my future holds for me, but maybe that is the exciting part! Taiwan you are an absolutely beautiful country! This is not a goodbye; it is a see you later!
Friday April 3rd I took the high speed rail up to the Taoyuan airport to meet Mom and Dad! They arrived around 8pm and we took a bus into Taipei where we stayed at a hotel near the Taipei Main MRT station. It was so good to finally see them again!!!
Saturday was a busy day! We took the MRT to the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial, the Longshan Temple, and the Shandao Temple. We were at the Shandao Temple around lunch time and the monks invited us downstairs for lunch. When we got to the lunch room all the tables were already set with the meal and we were the only ones there. After about 5 minutes the monks started marching in and chanting as they quickly filed into their places. There was around 200-300 monks there and we were the only foreigners and three of about fifteen civilians. They ate silently and were done in about 5-10 minutes when they rang a bell and started filling out again. I thought the meal was good, but as it was Mom and Dad’s first real meal in Taiwan I think it was a bit too traditional for them (they did not like it haha). After lunch we found a tea stand and Mom and Dad had their first bubble tea! They both liked it! Next we went to the National Palace Museum, which has the largest collection of ancient Chinese imperial artifacts and artworks in the world. Chiang Kai Shek took these artifacts and artworks from China when he fled to Taiwan in the early part of the twentieth century. For supper we went to a Thai restaurant in the Shilin night market. After this we went to the Taipei Eye where we saw a performance. The first half of the show had several different acrobatic acts and the second half was a traditional Chinese opera. The opera was a bit too much for me. The drums were very loud and high pitched and the singers sounded very different (the traditional way to sing is not what we are used to in western music). I am glad we saw it though as the costumes and make up were very nice and it was a good cultural performance. We were all very tired that night as this was a very busy day.
Sunday was Easter so we went to church in the morning. After this we went to Taipei 101 where we saw the cityscape. We ate at Din Tai Fung at the bottom of Taipei 101 to eat the famous xiaolongbao (soup dumplings). Next we took the gondola up to Maokong in the mountains to see the many tea plantations and tea houses. It was very beautiful!
Monday we met up with Shannon, Chris, and Sarah where we started our three day tour with My Taiwan Tour. We had a private van, driver, and tour guide to take us around the north east coast of Taiwan. On the way to Hualien we stopped at the King Car Whisky distillery in Yilan, ate lunch at a local restaurant in Yilan, stopped at the Quingshui Cliffs for a beautiful view point. Once in Hualien, we checked into the hotel and Mom and I went for a short walk in the city where we saw another temple. That night we all went shrimp fishing! After dark we drove to spot in the mountains where the river was shallow to do our shrimp fishing. We put on water shoes and got a net. I think all of us caught at least one crab and one shrimp although they were quite small. After we were finished the guides who were in charge cooked us a Taiwanese Barbeque. We had bamboo rice, shrimp, pork, fish, vegetables, and more. It was so good!
Tuesday we drove into Taroko Gorge where we did some light hiking. We even walked in a water curtain cave! On our walk we saw a monkey just on the edge of the trail. It did even run away as we walked by, just looked at us! Our final stop in Taroko Gorge was the Eternal Spring Shrine which is a tribute to the many lives lost in building the Central Cross-Island Highway. Next we started our drive back to Taipei and we stopped at a temple in Yilan along the way.
Wednesday we went to Yehilu which is a geopark in the north of Taiwan. There are many interested rock formations such as the famous, Queens Head. This geopark was very beautiful and I recommend going there if you are in Taiwan and have a chance. Our next stop was the Golden waterfall near Jiufen, which was very beautiful. Then we drove on to Jiufen, an old gold mining town with a nice market street. We also saw one of the first theaters in Taiwan there as well as the model for the famous Japanese anime, Spirited Away. After this we had a little extra time left before we had to head back to Taipei so we went to Shifen a famous town in Pingxi where the Sky Lantern Festival takes place. This was a very fun experience. Mom, Dad, and I released a red lantern which color represents family, health, and happiness. We also wrote our names on each side of the lantern with Chinese characters that also represent family, health, and happiness. I bought a small lantern that lights up that represents health and happiness. After this we went back to Taipei and Mom, Dad, and I took the HSR back to Taichung for the night. We had a lot of fun on the tour! Our tour guide, Kelly, was awesome; she spoke very good English and was very informational.
On Thursday we took the HSR to Chiayi where we got on a bus to Alishan National Scenic Area. The elevation was quite high so it took us a bit to adjust to the elevation. We walked around in the afternoon and saw beautiful scenery. We went to bed early as we woke at 3:30am to take a train to higher elevation in order to watch the sun rise. It was a bit cloudy, however, we were above some of the clouds and it was very beautiful. We went back to Taichung on Friday and ate lunch at a Japanese restaurant. After this we walked around the area where I normally go grocery shopping, get tea, etc. For supper we went to the night market where the school normally takes the kids on Saturdays. I had Mom and Dad try some green onion pancake, fried chicken, a corn dog with French fries on the outside, and a mango smoothie.
On Saturday, Dad was not feeling well; he had a bad cold and fever. He stayed at home while Mom and I did some shopping nearby. We went to the hardware store to get a tea set, the grocery store to buy some tea and chopsticks for everyone back home, and ate lunch at Sushi Express, a sushi restaurant where sushi comes by on a conveyor belt. In the afternoon we went to the mountains to a place near our school in Dakeng where monkeys are fed. There is no fence or anything and probably around 100-200 monkeys come for food. It is quite interesting! Mom and I ate at my place for supper, played cards, and had a girl’s night as Dad went to bed early since he was not feeling well.
On Sunday Dad was feeling much better. We all went to walk behind ICA to look at the rice fields and then took a tour of ICA. Next we took the bus downtown and went to the Science Museum, saw people’s park, and then had lunch at Wu Wei Tsao Tang Tea House where we had a tea ceremony. Next we went to the jade market for some souvenir shopping.
Monday morning Mom and Dad flew back to the US. We had such a fun time together and it was so good to see them again and to show them Taiwan!!!!
Today I went with Rebecca and a couple of her Chinese classes to a class field trip in Tainan, Taiwan. First we went to the National Museum of Taiwan History. It was a very interesting museum and I learned a lot about the history of Taiwan. Next we went to Yanping Old Street which is a street filled with food vendors and small trinket shops. I tried several famous foods from Tainan including coffin bread, fried shrimp, and tea from a famous stand. Next we saw Fort Zeelandia, which is an old military fort build in the 1620s. The fort had very beautiful flowers and Japanese style gardens. After this we went to another market street filled with lots of famous Tainan foods. It was a very fun day and I was excited I got to go with the students! Stay tuned as Mom and Dad will be here in two days!!! I’m so excited!!!
I have not written about my random adventures for awhile, but I have done a few exciting things lately. I have included some random photos from what I have been up to lately.
A month or so ago I went to pick strawberries in Miaoli. Basically there is a strawberry town! They have strawberry sausages, cookies, bubble tea, pizza, cake, etc. There were also huge strawberry statues and live music. It was quite interesting. I also went hiking and camping with the school awhile ago, which was a lot of fun. The students made us hot pot for supper that night. It was cute to watch and they did a very nice job with it! One day I also biked to a giant Buddha statue and temple near the Chungyo department store. I was able to watch some type of service for awhile but of course did not fully understand what was going on as it was in Chinese.
It was recently Lantern Festival in Taiwan which is the fifteenth day of the Chinese New Year and signifying the end of Chinese New Year (in the lunar calendar). Taichung was the host city this year, which was the year of the sheep/ram/goat (in Chinese they basically have one word for these animals so you may hear it called different names). There were three different places in Taichung that had lanterns set up for the festival. I went to one of them and it was very fun to see all the cool lanterns. There were two huge lanterns one was a giant ship that you could actually walk up and into it. The other one was a huge ram in honor of the year of the ram.
We also recently had parent’s day at school where we had parent-teacher conferences, a concert, and also international day. Knights house had Egypt so we served Egyptian food and had some Egyptian costumes.
3-14-15 at 9:26am and 53 seconds was a very special day for mathematicians everywhere! It was the pi day that only happens once in a century!!! To celebrate, we made t-shirts, went to the science museum, stopped at a café where if you translate the Chinese it is called “Trigonometric,” ate pi, played pi darts (cricket, but you had to hit the digits of pi), and watched Imitation Game (a movie about the mathematician Alan Turing). It was a fun day!
This past Friday night I went shrimp fishing which I believe is a popular activity for Taiwanese men. John, Hickel, Christina, and I went to an indoor shrimp fishing place where I think they had 4 pools of shrimp. The pools looked like and were about the same size as an average hotel swimming pool and the shrimp were separated into male and female shrimp pools. Every hour the owners would dump a bucket of shrimp into the pools. We fished for male shrimp and they were a lot bigger than I was expecting. We used normal fishing poles (although they did not have a reel as the pools were not very big). I caught three shrimp in a 2 hour time span (I do not think that was very good haha). Afterwards John washed the shrimp and cooked them for us. They were very tasty!
I had another eye check up on Saturday as I got the LASIK this last August in Taiwan. They said that everything looked good and I can switch to only doing a checkup once a year now!
Today was filled with adventures! I woke up early today and stopped at a day market near school where they sell various foods and clothing. Then I biked up into the mountains and came across a fancy place where people have wedding receptions. For lunch I met up with Shannon and Chris and we went to a place near school called Carton King. Almost everything was made of cardboard…tables, chairs, statues, etc. It was really neat!
Wednesday, December 24th I boarded the plane to spend Christmas break in New Zealand with Angie!!! I flew from Taipei to Hong Kong to Auckland and finally to Queenstown (which is in the South Island) making it a full 24 hours of traveling. I arrived about noon on Christmas day (Thursday) and Angie did not fly in until Saturday, so I had some time to explore on my own first. I made it to my hotel which had a spectacular view and then walked back into town to start exploring. I sat on the beach for awhile to soak up the nice sunny warm Christmas day. I watched several street performers and ended up being a part of the final act of a magician show. The magician had asked for a volunteer and the little girl beside me was raising her hand so I was gesturing towards her so that she would get called on, instead he choose me. I had to go up front and position myself just so and try to throw a playing card on top of the roof of a building. He got the audience to start clapping to give me some encouragement. After I threw it, he said I did such a great job that he was going to give me 20 dollars. When I started walking away he said “don’t you want to trade that for anything?” Of course I said no and then he said, “Don’t you want to trade that for a watch?” I looked down at my wrist and sure enough he had taken my watch at some point and I had no idea haha. He did end up throwing the playing card on top of the building which was rather impressive.
Then next day I had to switch hotels. I walked around town for a bit and had Fergburger, a famous burger joint, for lunch. I ate it on the beach with a couple from Bangkok that I met waiting in line for the Fergburger. That’s one thing that I love about traveling is meeting random people and hearing about their traveling stories! After lunch I walked around the city gardens and found a skate park. I went back to the hotel about midday to make use of the pool and soak up the sun a bit and ended up falling asleep outside at the pool. I had dinner in town again and had an early night to bed as I was a bit jet lagged and tired.
The next day (Saturday) I met Angie in the hotel lobby. It was so nice to see her again and we had a great time together!!! Once she got settled into the hotel sans her check bag (it was stuck in the states yet) we headed into town for lunch and to walk around a bit. That night we took the gondola ride up to the top of the mountain to watch a Kiwi Haka performance done by the Maori (one of the indigenous tribes in New Zealand). We had a bit of time before the performance so we had a snack and enjoyed the view. The performance was short, but very well done. They sang and danced and told us some details about the Maori. At one point the asked for volunteers and I got to go on stage to learn a dance. After the performance we rode the gondola back down to town and went to the Ice Bar. This is a bar where everything is made out of ice, the bar itself, the chairs, tables, and cups. They provide parkas, boots, and gloves before you go inside. The temperature was set at -7.4˚C which is about 19˚F. It was a lot of fun, but they only allow you to stay inside for about 30 minutes before the next group of people goes inside.
On Sunday we had a bus ride to Glenorchy where we saw some famous Lord of the Rings film sites and other sites for many movies and advertisements (including Coors Light and Milka). Next we took a short nature walk before getting on the jet ski/boat where we were able to see more of the Dart River area. The bus brought us back to Queenstown and then we met up with the Nomads safari group who gave us a tour of the The Remarkables (a famous mountain range in Queenstown that was also used in the Lord of the Rings movies), Arrowtown, and the surrounding area. We saw people bungy jump off the bridge between a canyon, but thought we would save that for the next time haha (not really)! We also took the 4D jeep in the river to see more of the area and try our luck at panning for gold. Unfortunately, we did not strike it big with any gold, but it was fun to try. We were dropped off in town with just enough time to check on Angie’s luggage that still did not make it to Queenstown before we boarded the TSS Earnslaw for our steam boat ride to the Walter Peak sheep farm. We ate a buffet dinner which was extremely good and watched a sheep dog demonstration and sheering demonstration. This 22,000 head sheep farm was absolutely gorgeous with tons of flowers all over.
Monday morning we hiked for about an hour and a half up to the top of the gondola where we started our three hour zip line course. It was so much fun, great views, and rather thrilling. Angie and I both tried going upside down, starting with a trust fall, and no hands (which seemed to be the toughest). After this we moved to our new hostel where Angie got her luggage finally, went to a brief meeting about the Kepler Track, enjoyed Fergburger, bought some more food for our hike, and went to the third Hobbit movie in the theater (we had to see this in theaters if it was playing while we were in New Zealand right?!). That night we went to our hostel to pack up what we needed for the Kepler Track, as we had to carry all our supplies including sleeping bag, rain gear, food, water, etc).
At 6:45am on Tuesday we got on a bus to head to Te Anau where we were supposed to be dropped off at the Conservation Center at the edge of town so that we could pick up our Kepler Track tickets and board a water taxi (we only had 30 minutes for this). Unfortunately, we were dropped off in the middle of town and had to get to the Conservation Center on our own with only 30 minutes to spare before our water taxi left. After walking for about 5 minutes or so I stopped to ask someone where the Conservation Center was and she said it was a kilometer down the road and would take 10 minutes to walk there so Angie and I started running with our big packs on the entire kilometer. They then told us that the water taxi was back where we started so Angie started back towards the water taxi while I got our tickets. I then ran all the way back and made it with minutes to spare! We later found out that they would have made a second trip for us if we were late, but at least we found out that we could run with our packs on! The water taxi took a few minutes to get across the lake and then we were ready to start our trek!
The first hike to the Luxmore Hut was a steady incline the entire way. It is an 8.2km path and took us about 3 hours and 15 minutes with a lunch break. After we were passed the brush line it was quite windy and chilly. Once at our hut we warmed up a bit and then hiked about ten minutes to the Luxmore Cave before we cooked our dinner. The hut was much nicer than I expected with running water, toilets, stoves for cooking, and mattresses. A storm rolled in with strong winds and rain through the night. The next day (Wednesday; New Year’s Eve) we started hiking at about 9:30 with rain off and on the whole day. It was quite chilly as we were walking on the ridge for most of the day. We took a side trip to climb to the top of the Luxmore Summit (the highest point on the track at about 1472 meters or about 4830 feet, but the wind and rain started picking up just before we got to the top so we decided to turn back. There were two shelters where we were able to take a break from the wind and rain for a bit. Despite the bad weather, it was still absolutely gorgeous views! It took us about 2 hours to get to the first hut, an hour and 20 minutes to get to the second hut where we took a 10 minute lunch break, and then another hour and 50 minutes to walk the 14.6km to the Iris Burn Hut. Once at the hut we dropped off our gear and then walked another 50 minutes roundtrip to a waterfall. When we got back to the hut, warm dry clothes were a welcoming change! Since it was New Years Eve we drank our small bottle of wine that we brought along and stayed up until midnight to be one of the first in the world to bring in the New Year! We played cards with our friend Robyn and visited with a couple from Belgium, a guy from Canada, and a couple girls from New Zealand.
We started out at around 9am on Thursday for the 16.2km hike to the Moturau Hut. This was a fairly easy hiking day as the trail was mostly level ground. It took us about 2 hours and 30 minutes to a shelter where we ate our lunch and then about another 2 hours and 15 minutes until we reached the hut. I think we were slower walkers than most as we would stop every little while to take pictures and enjoy the scenery. We had quite a bit of time at the Moturau hut to enjoy the sun as it was finally starting to show itself. We stretched and layed on the beach for awhile and then finally were brave enough to go in the cold lake. It was very refreshing! The last day of our hike was a short one as it was only a 6km walk to where we would get picked up by a bus (this took us about an hour and 50 minutes). The bus brought us back to the edge of Te Anau. Since we had some time before our next bus came to bring us back to Queenstown we decided to walk another 40 minutes round trip to get a muffin. The muffin was definitely worth it though!
Once back in Queenstown, we showered and then headed straight to get some Fergburger. I usually do not like burgers that much, but this was so good I had it three times while I was in Queenstown! We saw an outdoor concert in the park and walked around a bit before we went to bed. I think we were both pretty tired from the hike.
On our last day in Queenstown (Saturday) we checked out the craft fair in the park and bought a few souvenirs. Walked around the town, ate pizza and ice cream, and enjoyed the amazing views one more time. We took the bus to the airport and got ready for our long flight to Taipei and then car ride to Taichung.
We arrived in Taichung about noon dropped our stuff off at my apartment, and then headed downtown to a traditional tea house downtown. We had tea and dessert and then went to the jade market where Angie got a salt lamp. For dinner we had Din Tai Fung, which is super tasty!
I had to go to school on Monday so Angie did some laundry at my place and then we biked to Sushi Express for lunch, got bubble tea (she said it was good but would take a bit to get used to the bubbles), and picked up a few different types of fruit for Angie to try. After school we went for a hike near my apartment and then went to hot pot for dinner. On Tuesday Angie went for a walk while I was at school to a park and got a little turned around on the way back, but she was able to make it ok and pick up some bubble tea! She came to school before lunch and then stayed with me at school for the rest of the day. After school we went to the Hot Springs and relaxed before we had dinner at the night market. Angie took off for another long flight back to the states on Wednesday morning. We had an amazing trip together and there are already talks of more back packing trips together! Thanks for being awesome Angie 🙂
Last weekend I hiked up Snow Mountain, the second highest mountain in Taiwan at 3886 meters (12749.3 feet). The trail is about 11km to the summit and about a 1600 meter altitude change. There was no snow on the mountain when we hiked, but it is usually covered in snow from December to about March or April. I think this was my favorite hike in Taiwan thus far!
On Friday right after school Darragh, Stefany, and I headed to Taipei via the high-speed rail to meet up with the Taiwan Adventures group. Stu and Phil, the trip guides, drove all 16 of us in two vans to Wuling Farms which is about a four hour drive away from Taipei. We arrived at Wuling Farms (about 2200 meters) at about 12:30am and we hiked for about an hour in the dark to get to the first cabin (Qika Cabin) which is at 2500 meters. The cabin is rather rustic with no electricity and one room with bunk beds. There was running water at this cabin, but it had to be boiled first in order to drink it. At about 10am on Saturday we started hiking for the day. We had lunch on the trail and arrived at the next cabin (369 Cabin) at about 3:30pm. At 3100 meters, this cabin did not have running water so we had to be very conservative of our water. There was some water that was gathered from a stream a couple km away and carried in to cook with and drink. We rested here for awhile before we had an early dinner and an early night to bed.
At 2:15am on Sunday we woke up, put on our warmest clothes and head lamps, had a bite to eat, and started hiking again at 3am. This part of the trail was tough as the last few km was rather steep and we were at a higher altitude. We arrived at the summit maybe around 5:45am to watch the sunrise. The view was so amazing I do not know how to describe it in words. We started hiking back down to the 369 cabin at around 6:30am and got there around 9am. We had another bite to eat and started hiking all the way back down the mountain again at 10am. We stopped a few times and got to the vans again around 2:30pm. It took us a little longer to get back to Taipei as the traffic was heavy on Sunday afternoon. We got to the train station in Taipei at around 8pm and took the high-speed rail back to Taichung.
Overall this was an awesome weekend! Taiwan Adventures was well organized and very friendly. I highly recommend hiking Snow Mountain to anyone who likes an adventure and an amazing view!!
A few weeks ago I ran in a Run for Your Life Zombie Run! Some people dressed up as zombies and tried to scare you or get your flags (kind of like flag football), while everyone else was a human and ran the 5k trying to doge past zombies and complete several obstacles (including a mud pit)! I was a human, although I did not survive! It was a lot of fun! I posted some pictures for your enjoyment.
Today Bayley, Steve, and I took 15 students on the Eagle Mountain hike. It was about a 2 hour drive from school (although the traffic was very bad today so it took much longer). The hike was mentally challenging as there were several parts where it was almost like rock climbing. I think it was good for the students, as some of them had to face their fear of heights. So far this is my favorite hike in Taiwan as the view is absolutely amazing and the scaling over rocks made it different and fun. Unfortunately, pictures never do it justice, but I will post a few so you can see the view. I’m missing everyone at home as the whole Gulbranson clan will be at mom and dad’s this week for thanksgiving. Love you and miss you all!
* Sorry for writing way less this year. I’m only posting about adventures or random things that I feel like sharing!
Darragh, Kristina, (both new teachers) and I took the high speed rail to Taipei right after activity on Friday. We found our hostel which was a few blocks away from Taipei 101 and then we went across the street to a night market. We ate a late dinner at this awesome restaurant at the night market where they cooked our meat and vegetables on the stove right in front of us.
The next day we walked to Taipei 101 and got a reservation for the Din Tai Fung restaurant at the bottom of Taipei 101. This restaurant is ranked one of the top ten restaurants in the world by the New York Times and always has a long wait to get in! While we were waiting to get into the restaurant we went to the top of Taipei 101 to see the city. Taipei 101 was the world’s tallest building from 2004-2010 and is 509 meters high (1669.9 feet). After we finished taking in the city, we came back down just in time for our reservation; the dumplings there are amazing! After this we had bubble tea and went to the movie theater to see “Gone Girl.” We got there just in time to see it; however, the theater was almost full so we were unable to sit by each other. It was a thriller and I was definitely gasping the entire time haha! After the movie we went to the Shilin night market, which is the largest in Taipei, and we met up with a family friend of Darragh’s who owns two restaurants in Taipei. We walked around and tried various foods and then went to The Orange Café (one of his restaurants) for some tea.
Sunday we walked to the Sun Yet-Sun Memorial Hall which was near our hostel so we walked there to check it out. After this we met up with Darragh’s family friend again and walked around a few different fun parts of Taipei including the Xiemen district. We finished our trip in Taipei with lunch at the friend’s other restaurant and then took the high speed rail back to Taichung.
Taipei is a great city and easy to get around due to the Metro!
It is our third week into the school year and I have not written since I got back to Taiwan. Here is a quick recap of the year so far. I teach all of the same classes as I did last year, which is nice. This way I can try to improve on my lessons from last year. Here’s my schedule:
8-8:50 9A Geometry
8:55-9:45 10C Geometry
9:45-10:10 Assembly
10:10-11 7th Grade Pre Algebra
11:05-11:55 Prep
12-12:35 Lunch
12:35-1:20 Prep
1:25-2:10 Prep
2:10-2:25 Cleaning
2:25-3:10 9B Geometry
3:15-4:05 Academy Singers
4:25-5:30 Volleyball
So far we have had one volleyball game against Morrison and we came out with a win! I look forward to a good season. We have a tournament in Kaohsiung next weekend and in Macau over Fall break!
Every Wednesday night, my friend Bayley is teaching a yoga class for the teachers at school. This is my favorite night of the week as I have found that yoga is a great workout and stress reducer.
This past week we had a school field trip to a baseball game in Taichung! It was a lot of fun. I even got one of the balls that the outfielders through into the stands 🙂
I have come up with a list of restaurants and places that I need to go to in Taichung and other places in Taiwan. So as the weekends go by I am slowly but surely trying to cross things off!
* Sorry that this blog post was weak, but as I type I am also working on a post about the different fruits in Taiwan. It will probably take all year though as I want to include as many pictures of the fruits that I eat as I can. So be ready because it will be awesome!
Rachel Belinda Gulbranson 