Winter Vacation in Taiwan

When I last left off, I was just getting ready to go to Hualien for Fulbright's mid-year conference, and then embark on winter vacation. In Taiwan, winter vacation revolves around Chinese New Year, so the semester is 21 weeks long. That's right--no winter vacation until 2/3 of the way through January. (By contrast, my college semester was 16 or 17 weeks depending on whether or not you count the week we had off for Thanksgiving.) Moving on.

We went down to Hualien for our mid-year Fulbright conference. In Hualien we had lunch and then visited the Abode of the Tze Chi foundation. If you're not familiar with it, Tze Chi is known as Buddhism in action. It's built on the ideas of charity, education, medicine, and culture. The organization gives aid globally (regardless of nation, religion, etc.), attempting to demonstrate Buddha's love through their work, rather than through scripture. Anyway, I read a biography about the founder and I keep trying to remind myself that if she could accomplish what she has over the last decades, I shouldn't look at anything as insurmountable. That being said, it's still hard to actually keep it in mind in day to day life or on a particularly rough day. I don't agree with everything in the book--I do understand that with one foot in the past and one on tomorrow, you're going to screw up today. However: it rained yesterday, it's not raining right now, should I throw away my umbrella? No. And how do we decide what to do about tomorrow if not based on what we know, i.e. our past experiences? I'm going to stop now before I get too preachy. Back to the wonders of Hualien.

The next day we had our conference all day and listened to the updates on how everyone's Fulbright projects were going. The day after that, we left Hualien, but not before going on a tour of Taroko Gorge. Taroko Gorge is absolutely breath-takingly gorgeous. The walls look like sheer rock, but somehow on that rock-face, life has firmly taken root. The sides of the gorge are covered with plant life. We explored the Cimu Bridge, the shrine at the Eternal Spring, and Shakadang trail, as well as a few other places.

After the conference, a lot of people left Taiwan for a portion of their break. I didn't. My mom was coming to visit me and I was looking forward to showing her everything I loved about Taiwan--my favorite people, places, and foods. I had a few days to rest before she arrived, and then I met her at the airport in Taipei.

I was so glad to see her. We went back to the hotel in Taipei and after settling in, I took her to Chiang Kai Shek memorial, and then to Ximen for some shopping and dinner. (You can only do so much with that much jet lag)

The next day, we went to the National Palace Museum, Shilin day market, Taipei 101, and who knows where else. (Keep in mind, this was about a month ago now)

Sunday we went to Kaohsiung on the HSR.

Monday, I finally got to take her home to Yilan. I was really excited about showing her Yilan because I love it here. We took a taxi to my apartment and I showed her the view from Carolyn's balcony--the view from there pretty much says it all. Directly in front, sitting in the mountains, you can see Jiaoxi, with Fo Guang clearly visible. On the right, Luna Plaza and You-Ai Department store stand out. I can point our the direction my school is in, even though it's not visible, and the train station where we came in. It's home.

That evening we walked to Luna Plaza along the same streets I walk every day to go to school. I took her by my school and we walked through, looking around. Finally, we'd worked up an appetite and went down to my favorite hotpot for dinner. Walking home, we went by the train station and the stationary store. Taiwan has absolutely amazing cards that you just really don't see anywhere else.

The next morning we were up bright and early to go to Hualien. We took a bus through Hualien and through Taroko, and I pointed out all the important spots I could remember. It was a really long day with a lot of travel, but at that point, we were pretty glad for resting and doing it by bus.

The next day was Chinese New Year's Eve. We spent most of the day relaxing, had lunch at Luna Plaza (a lot of smaller places were closed because of the New Year), and hung out together. That night, we went to Chinese New Year Eve dinner with my co-teacher, Yvonne. We had a wonderful time, meeting her family, playing with her twins (a boy and a girl about a year and a half old), and eating delicious home cooked food in great company.

Thursday we rested, mostly hanging out at the house, venturing to my favorite chicken and sweet potato place for dinner. Friday, I took her out to see more of Yilan. We got up and had danbing (scallion crepe egg bacon thing) and naicha (milk tea) for breakfast at one of the places near the apartment, and then walked to the traditional market in Yilan. From there we walked to the train station and boarded the train for Jiaoxi. We went to the Tangwei Brook Hot Spring and spent a great afternoon there, wandering around Jiaoxi for a while afterward. From there, we went to Luodong--my favorite night market in Taipei. Shilin is the biggest, but Luodong's is large without being overwhelming. We had a lot of fun shopping and eating congyoubing (green onion pancake) from my favorite stand. We even met a couple of ETAs back in Yilan that night for ice cream.

The next day was my mom's last full day in Yilan and we took it leisurely. She and I rode bikes to Luna and went back to her favorite restaurant, Cafe Grazie (sort of a Taiwanese take on American-Italian). Keep in mind, this is the first time my mom has seen me ride a bike without training wheels--I never really learned until I came to Taiwan. After lunch we walked down to another stationary store.

The next day we headed back to Taipei for one last night and Monday morning I took my mom to the airport. Saying goodbye was hard, but I know I'll see her again in a few months--July 1 I'm going home. (As of writing this, I have 131 days to enjoy Taiwan before I'll be home again.)

I have to confess, I didn't really do anything with that last week of vacation. I had meant to travel around the island more but for one reason and another, it didn't happen.

The last day of vacation however, I did go to Taipei with new friends and old, and play paintball. It was a long day--we left for the bus station a little after 10 in the morning (half hour walk or so) and didn't get home until after 10 at night. I did have a lot of fun, and it got me out of the house. Only downside: being shot in the leg while lying in a muddy trench. It kind of made me long for paintball's less painful little brother--Lazer Tag.