A trip to Alishan Mountain, Medicals and an Anniversary

Well, I can't believe another month has flown by! Where does the time go???

On Saturday, November 18 we went on a trip with Jason's school to Mount Alishan, which is near Chiayi, about a 3 hour bus ride and another hour or so to get up the mountain. It was a kareoke bus (!) so teachers and parents singing in Chinese the whole way there and back!!! (Exept for the 2 or 3 songs Jason sang in English!). It was quite a trip. The boys loved it, they love travelling in the bus!!!

We stopped half way up the mountain and had a walk around, and Jason's boss took us for lunch (rice box), which is a traditional lunch which is a box of rice with chicken and veggies, and soup. It was interesting, different to western style cooking, but it was rather good. Then we went back to the bus and headed further up the mountain! VERY high, I tried not to look out of my window too often!!!

We eventually reached the top, and we were as high as the clouds! Awesome!!! It was also very chilly, luckily I had bought us all sweaters!!!

The origin of Alishan is that about 250 years ago there was a chief of the Jou people whose name was "Abali". Not only was he a respected hunter but also very familiar with the mountain area. Because his people had great respect for Abali, they decided to call the mountain region where they hunted "Alishan", Mount Ali.

Alishan Forest Recreation Area has a total of 1,400 hectares. There are some wonderful old Cypress trees there, and Alishan was developed as early as the end of the 19th century! Besides the logging past, the most famous attractions in the Alishan are the sunrise, sunset, cloud sea, and the mountain train.

We had a wonderful time, and got home at around 9pm that evening exhausted!

Then the following weekend we took the boys to Nanjhou Recreation Park. It is about a 20 minute ride by scooter. They had such fun playing on the swings and jungle gym, and Keanu-Storm was running up and down waving goodbye to the train. Then we took a bit of a walk through to the other side and found a market (similar kind of set up as the Golden Hours market in Durban), but VERY different, ok, so the only thing similar was the trees and shade! LOL

So anyway, the boys saw the 4x4 bikes and absolutely HAD to ride them! They had a blast!!!

We then went to buy some hot chips, although Willow-River decided on the mealies instead, good choice, because the chips were REALLY bad!!! Talis-Rain and Keanu-Storm ate them though, but I was really dissapointed cos I really felt like "slap" chips!!! That is something I do miss from home, being able to buy really nice hot chips anywhere (with vinegar, another thing they don't have here. Well they do but in VERY small bottles, one bottle lasts me one meal just about!!!).

I have discovered that the bakery now does really nice hamburgers, and the boys have hot dogs, and Willow-River prefers to have a tuna, corn and salad roll (impressed Nana?), so now and again that is dinner (like on a Wednesday when I teach till after 5pm and I know the boys wont stay awake till dinner is ready, so now we stop at the bakery on the way home and buy dinner - really great!).

Oh yes, it was Jason and my 8th year wedding anniversary last Tuesday (28 November), we didn't really do anything special, I cooked dinner (wow, surprise there!), and he bought me a big box of Dove dark chocolate (yum), and I got him a new coffee mug!

Another thing we did do earlier this month, we caught a bus to Pingtung for the day and went to the shopping mall there, and just walked around the city for the day. At the shopping they had these kids putting on a show, it was really cute! And they have a big clock on the wall that on the hour it turns around and a mermaid and a shell appear - the boys were amazed by this, so was I actually! We then went and found a little restuarant on the side of a little road that made really nice toasted sarmies, then we headed home!

On Sunday night we went to our church's main church in Kaohsiung. They have recently moved to a new building on the 32nd floor! It is so high, and the view was magnificent. It was a 1234 meeting - December 3 at 4pm - hence 12 3 4 ! They have been given the space rent free - absolutely wonderful! I think I have mentioned before that Jason is now playing in one of the church bands at our church here in Donggang. It is a bit tricky for him since most of the songs are in chinese, but they do sing a few familiar songs that we know, just they sing in chinese. Grace, my friend from church who sings with Jason in the band has asked me to come and sing with them too, although I told her I am not yet ready to sing in chinese, but she says they plan on doing an english service sometime! That would be great.

So we have had another busy month, the Mandarin lessons are going a lot slower than they should. Some weeks Amy can't make it, other weeks we can't make it, but slowly slowly we will get there!

Please keep us in your prayers these next few days as my visa expires next week, and I am still waiting for a letter from Taipei stating we are in fact married (they need this to process my resident visa), and also my medical came back with conflicting results!

They ticked both positive and negative on my medical form for a stomach parasite. I have tried to have this checked up but with the language barrier it has been quite difficult, and for me to be re-checked the results would only be back after next week so it would be too late. Jason's boss told me not to worry it will all be fine, so I am trying to stay positive and have faith! I did have a bit of an upset tummy that day (every time I eat something that I don't cook myself I get an upset stomach!).

So hopefully they won't turn down my visa on that! Also if the letter does not arrive in time from Taiwan, then we will have to do a visa run to Hong Kong, which Jason's boss says he will also pay for, but I would rather be going to Hong Kong under different circumstances! I tell you there is more "redtape" for me to go through and I am not even employed here!!!

Anyway, if you can keep us in your prayers I would be most grateful!!! I would just like us to finally have our resident visa, so the boys and I don't have to worry about it anymore, and we will finally be "legal aliens" like daddy! LOL! The boys love that one!!!

Well guys, hope you are all well, love to you all....

~* Peace and Love *~