TAIWAN!

Finally, I am getting around to my MONDO-HUGE post about Taiwan :) I couldn't get on blogger for a while because pre-Taiwan, Brenan had changed our computer into chinese characters instead of English, so today he switched it back so I get it again. First of all, Taiwan was absolutely incredible. I fell in love with it and can see why Brenan wanted to go back so badly. The Taiwanese people were so generous and hospitable and always were looking for ways to help us Americans out. They were usually shocked when Brenan would open his mouth and speak Mandarin - and they flipped out when he spoke Taiwanese to them! It was so fun to hear it all first hand. Every day Brenan and I would comment to each other about how lucky we were to experience Taiwan together. Thank you to Alan and Patti, for making this all possible!

Getting to Taipei at 6:00 am. My hair was looking a little worse for wear after 14 hours of flight time, hence the hood. Waiting for the new High Speed Rail that took us down to Kaohsiung from Taipei - it only took 1 1/2 hours and we got to see basically the whole island on our way!

Our jammin hotel in Kaohsiung. THis place was amazing and the receptionists/door boys were so sweet to us. We spent 6 days here in this hotel, and became good friends with the employees. They called us our overseas friends.

Our first night in Taiwan, we ran into the missionaries putting on a Christmas concert outside a brand new mall that had been built in the last 3 years since Brenan was there. THe missionaries made us feel right at home. Can't you just see Brenan's face in there, caroling away?

Marty, a good member from Kaohsiung who took us to the mall that first night. He also treated us to some "american" ice-cream :) He was so sweet and made sure we were well taken care of.

I love the Chinese construction hat!

Brenan's first bite of dan bing, a Taiwanese breakfast food. I soon fell in love with it too!

On a ferry over to the island of ChiJin.

CHinese lanterns outside of a Daoist temple

Weird food I tried to steer clear of. I succeeded for the most part.

A very old Daoist temple on Chi Jin island. Very cool. Temples like these could be seen almost as much as 7 Elevens (every other block.)

A light house on the top of the little island.

Our own personal tour guide of the island, Tony, who we met on the ferry across to Chi Jin.

A convincing sign. Yes, cliffs are very dangerous.

The only yard I saw in Taiwan the whole time I was there. It was beautiful!!

I'm happy to say that I had to use these only twice during our stay. I still don't quite know which way to face. I think of my Sam Floyd who is with her husband in mainland China teaching English. I'm sure she is a pro by now - I should have consulted with her!

A sweet family that brenan knew. Their two little girls were SOOO cute! Little Taiwanese kids are adorable! They treated us to "bing" - fruit on shaved ice with sweetened condensed milk - sauce. So delicious!

Our hotel's pool. It was lovely to look at, but it was FREEZING! A swim would have been nice, because it was pretty warm outside, but the water was like ice.

Christmas Eve with some members from Kaohsiung. This was at a Korean BBQ place that was so good. This is the family that owned the one and only skate shop in Taiwan, so of course Brenan would know them :)

Merry Christmas!!!! Brenan surprised me with boots he had packed all the way from Provo! I cried for like 15 minutes because it was so sweet and thoughtful of him! He wrapped them in the hallway of our hotel in the Taipei Times newspaper before bringing them in. What a sweetheart. Other highlights of Christmas morning were talking to our family, even Elder Hall in Kenya! What a great present!

One of Brenan's old apartments in the mission. Every building was humongous.

Brenan spent a lot of time using the phone on the corner of this street. IT was awesome to see so many random places I'd always pictured in my head.

AN LDS church - it was beautiful!

An old investigator family who still had framed pictures of Brenan and his companion and their family sitting on their living room book shelf!

Brenan practicing up on a little Chinese exercises in the park - a great story goes with this pic!

We rented a scooter and joined the sea of scoots on the Taiwan roads. Brenan got the hang of it quickly, and I just hung on and prayed.
At a night market - we thought this was busy -- wait until Taipei on New Years Day!!
THis man recognized Brenan because he ate here so often while in the office.

Apparently this is the last picture blogger will let me post for this posting. We have much more, but it will have to wait for another day!