K-Town Chronicles

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We are going to let the pictures do the talking in this one. One thing we want to add that the pictures can't convey is that the people of Taiwan were extremely friendly.

Sit back, put on some stellar 80's music, and enjoy the montage.

This is what we left behind

Our humble street

Greenness

Home Security at it's best.

The hostel.

The alley by out hostel. Taipei is definatly a green city.

Taiwanese New Year's Decorations

No household is complete without one of these.

Bikealicious

ART at it's best

7/11's in the US have hot dogs and taquitos, in taiwan you get 1,000 years eggs.

7/11 goodies

Duck anyone? only $9 and freshly air dried

Eletons-of-fun

Pimp Dady G

Bobafest '11 Let the fun begin

Long Shan Temple

Gardian

Inside Long Shan Temple

Hundreds of seats surround the temple

Market

e pluribus unum

Mmmm...

Yup

Soup anyone? The food here is DELICIOUS!

If you poopie, you must flushie!

Fruit at the night market.

Bowl of goo with some limes and ice. Didn't have the stomach to try it.

I can hear ya!

Jennifers handy work

And you thought Natty Ice was bad...

Peanuts

Now that's what I call a meat market.

A butcher

Temple in the sky

Pathway to the secret garden that takes up a few city blocks.

Duck!

Cactus flowers

New Year's Resolution 1: I will face my fears.

Sweet doors

Searching for the illusive Malaysian Night Heron

This place is a dump(ling) Just kidding, it was the BEST food ever!

Dumplings 101

Can I get a little of your Boba?

Boba #2

Sweet street

European architecture

Stop

Shops

Bobbin for apples.

One step closer to seeing the national palace museum

Red, White,S and Blue

A little Italian food to ring in the new year

Ganbei

Sup Pup?

Yes, this is the crowd to get to the subway on New Year's. Took 1, 2 hours top.

A few more of our new friends

Just a few of our new friends

Hell Yea

Explosive

Happy 100 years of being China's bestie!

The Taiwanese really sparkle.

66

Jennifer had a really good one for this, but it got vetoed.

Cemetary Hill

Sup homie

Sky Buckets

Meouch

Yikes!

Taipei 101 in the distance.

Skybucket Shot

The best sausage ever $1

We liked this som much we had to buy one

Contrast 1

Contrast 2

How about a cuppa tea

Peace

Jade Market

Bones

Beef Bone Soup

Kitty

Boba #3

John's favorite picture

Young again

ROC 100 years and counting

We could 'hare-dly' wait to celebrate the New Year!

View from the top

Beer+ice cream, only in Taiwan

Beer + Ice Cream =

Taipei was just exploding with things to do

mail

mail

We didn't let anything 'Damper' our day

World's largest gem coral

Stone

Huge jade cabbage, not a cool as the original but they 'lettuce' take a photo of this one

Foot and mouth disease

THIS IS FOR YOU JAMIE

Final Boba in Bobaville

I HOPE YOU CAN SEE THAT WE HAD ONE TERRIFIC TIME Big thanks for the Christmas gift mom.

With no family festivities or work parties we decided to best way to celebrate Christmas was with an all night K-Pop party at Lotte World- an indoor and much cheesier version of Disneyland. Needless to say, Jennifer loved it. For those of you whose ears haven't been blessed with K-Pop, it's pretty much the ultimate dance music with Korean girls and guys belting out NSYNC style songs while dancing up a storm. After the concert we caught a ride on some crazy tea cups on 'roids that spun us round and round while bumpin us up and down. We almost lost our free and delicious corn dogs that we scored. But luckily we were able to keep it down with some beers to settle our stomachs. We then ran into a friend of ours named Connie and one of her Korean friends. They convinced us to brave the house of mirrors, so we strapped on some lunch lady plastic gloves (a requirement) and proceeded to bump endlessly off the mirrors. The climax was definitely the end when we had to cross a bridge through a dark spinning tunnel. We all made it through, but we almost lost John. Luckily he and his beer emerged safely at last. Phew! After 5 or so hours of K-Pop and rides, we headed back to our motel at 5 in the morning. Merry Christmas indeed!
The next day, which was Christmas, we braved the arctic temperatures to watch the Nutcracker K-town style. After first going to the wrong theater, we just barely made it in very hot balcony seats as the curtain opened. It was a fantastic performance and John even admitted that he enjoyed it. Then we chowed down on some beef (Gasp!) galbi- chunks of marinated meat that you barbecue on a little grill at your table. It wasn't a traditional Christmas meal or holiday for us, but it was definitely memorable!

==Korean Culture==: With about 25% of the population the Christmas spirit is fairly strong. Most of our students celebrated the holiday is some form or another. Most reported receiving one gift while others said they spent the day with their family. Our coworkers all banded together and went to a small town in Incheon where they could look at the famous Incheon Bridge (which was all lit up) and have some good food and drinks. It seemed that families with children spent the day together shopping and eating while the middle aged crew spent time with friends.

The Stores embraced the holidays with elaborate displays of Christmas trees and lights. There were some good sales, but the major shopping seemed to take place on Christmas day. Each department store had an area where you could buy Christmas decorations, but it was tucked away on the upper floors far away from the majority of the traffic.

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In an attempt to catch up on some important blogs the next few may be short, sweet, and full of pictures

When the students are good (they answer a question correctly or they do their homework), they get points or stickers and at the end of each month they change them in for Dollars. At the end of the year the Director (which is how we address him) holds a special market day for them. There he fills 4 of the classrooms with toys and stationary that the students can buy. There is also a room where, for a fee, the children can buy a cake and decorate it, one room full of food, and one room with a movie playing where they can relax and eat their food. To add to the fun there is a big contest that they kids participate in where they can win large sums of money. We shared the tasks of photographer and game show host.

Ｈａｖｅ　ｙｏｕ　ｇｕｅｓｓｅｄ　ｗｈｅｒｅ　ｗｅ　ａｒｅ　ｙｅｔ？　　Ｉdon't see any comments.

Last night we watched one of the tallest man made objects in the world explode with light and fireworks as a crowd of what seemed like one million erupted with cheers. English is spoke by almost everyone under the age of 30. Its not uncommon to find man-made relics from 6000 years ago at the museums. And one of the favorite street foods is seriously STINKY!