Shifen and Jingtong (Pingxi Rail Line)

To go to the Pingxi Rail, we first went to Ruifang. In Ruifang you can buy an all day pass to ride the Pingxi local rail line as many times as you want in one day. The trains don't leave Ruifang all the time though so we had an hour or so to use up before our Pingxi train left. We spent it exploring Ruifang a bit. It was fun to get my kids out of the big city and into a smaller town. When I was here as a missionary, I spent a lot of time in smaller cities and towns so it was fun for me to take them somewhere more like what I remembered. We even met a nice family from South Africa in Ruifang. 

Then the train came and we headed up on the Pingxi Line. It rained a bit but mostly was just one of those magical misty days that I love in Taiwan.

The big thing in the Pingxi area is to light sky lanterns. They have a big festival where they release tons at once. (Kind of like in Tangled.) But we decided to take the quieter route and go up a week or so before the festival. You can release lanterns all the time so we grabbed the kids from school one day when Grandpa was in town and just went up mid-week. We weren't sure what to expect but it was really easy to find places to get the lanterns. We rode to the end of the line (Jingtong I think) and just planned to work our way back down the line. We never did stop in Pingxi actually. But we still had a great time. We'll have to go back another time and take in some of the hikes. I hear they are supposed to be great. We did take a quick hike to a small water fall.






And, of course, we set off our lanterns.

The first thing you do is write your hopes and wishes on the lantern. The kids used Chinese calligraphy brushes to write what they wanted and we added some of our own wishes as well.

"This is great with grandpa." Awww. 

Then the person who sold you the lantern adds the fuel.

You take it out over the train tracks and she lights it. You hold it as the hot air fills it.

And then you let it go, sending your good hopes and wishes with it.

Another tradition is to write on a bamboo stick and tie it up at the train station. Some people wrote their names with their boy/girlfriends, Some wrote their wishes. Some wrote wishes for others. They are all over town though. It was really cool. The bamboo sticks only cost about a dollar in USD so we bought one for each of the kids. After decorating theirs, they hung them around their necks and wrists because they wanted to keep them as souvenirs. Best (and cheapest) souvenirs ever. 

One of the towns had a coal mining museum in it. We had to check it out since my dad is a mining engineer. The kids loved the ride in the old cart that the miners used to use. One of the tour guides was an old miner so he and my dad enjoyed talking shop. (With a little translation help.)

The old mine area is in a pretty part of the mountains that overlooks Pingxi and the other towns.

Definitely worth the trip. We had a fantastic day.

Hot Pot

Hot pot has become one of my kids' new favorite meals. We have to make our own broth but other than that, it's really easy to just prep the veggies and let them go at it throwing their veggies in to cook. (We only have meat every once in awhile since I still can't eat it. This was Chinese New Year with my dad so we did have it then. Eating hot pot on Chinese New Year is really common here. There are often all kinds of interesting fish shapes involved, Hello Kitty included, but we can't eat those because they might have wheat. Doesn't stop us from admiring all the cool shapes at the store though.) 

Anyway, the point is we all love it. The kids happily plow through mounds of veggies. We have an easy meal to make. Every one is happy.  

The burner cost us about 10 USD and the pot we use cost about 10-15 USD. I bought them both during Chinese New Year which is a great time to get just about anything on sale here. I was joking with my husband that we need to do our Christmas shopping during Chinese New Year (too bad that would mean shopping for Christmas about 10 months in advance). The fuel for the burner is about 3 USD for 3 containers. So, once you buy the initial stuff, it's pretty cheap. And it's just fun to sit around the table cooking our dinner and chatting. We eat it a couple times a month. It's a nice, easy Sunday dinner after church. The kids even help us prep all the veggies. 

There are loads of hot pot restaurants in Taiwan. We can't really go to them but I've heard good reviews. Anyway, there's your bit of Taiwan for today. Hot pot, yummy stuff. 

Traditions

I posted a kind of jumbled recap of our Easter weekend that I felt like didn't make a whole lot of sense. I took a bit thinking about it and realized why it was the way it was.

I missed Easter Saturday for the first time ever.

For some reason to me that was a big deal. The kids didn't care a bit. We spent the morning at Yehliu instead and had a great time. 

I'd didn't realize until later that evening that the next day was Easter. In the past we have always done our egg hunt the Saturday before Easter. For some reason it really bugged me that I had missed it. I think it's for a couple reasons.

#1 As a family, we have almost zero food traditions with holidays anymore. So many holiday traditions seem to include food. It's just too hard to find gluten free/dairy free whatever when we are in a country that barely carries the item in question. So we've had to let that go. Not a big deal in the big picture of life but there is a reason expats are willing to pay an arm and a leg for a Thanksgiving or Christmas turkey or ham sometimes. Traditions matter to people. However, I can't justify shelling out big bucks for a turkey or ham only to find out we can't eat it anyway. Thanksgiving for us is still a fun feast but it sure looks different than the Thanksgivings we grew up with. Our new tradition has been for the kids to each choose two foods that they like and we make those. (My favorite thing about Thanksgiving is that we cook like crazy and then get 2-3 days off while everyone eats leftovers.) So we had no stuffing but we did have salsa and homemade ice cream sandwiches.
We've never done tons for Easter and we usually can only get one type of candy here for the kids that they can eat but at least I did it on the right day usually. (We like a relaxed Easter Sunday focused on the religious side of the holiday so we always partied on Saturday and had a calm Sunday.) I felt bad missing that day but the kids didn't care at all. We also had hot pot for Easter this year and the kids loved it. I just need to let go of the idea that they have to have a holiday like their peers in the States.

#2 I feel like I'm not sure we really have any traditions that carry from place to place. Except maybe the tradition of having cascarones because who doesn't like smashing eggs and we can get eggs and paper anywhere.

#3 My kids are getting bigger. Things they used to care about they don't care about as much and other things seem to matter more to them. Hard to tell which is which sometimes.

Anyway, the whole thing really had me thinking hard. I felt like a terrible mom at first for forgetting. But we painted eggs later and it was still just as fun and we had our hunt another day and enjoyed it a lot. It made me step back and evaluate what I value in the holiday. We all love the creative aspect of decorating eggs and cascarones. The younger kids still like the egg hunt. The older kids still like the egg smashing. So we'll find something that works for everyone. Turns out the day it happens doesn't really matter. Might be one of the benefits of living in a place where not many people celebrate your holiday.

It's funny living overseas sometimes because I feel like I have to really think about what matters about a holiday and what is just a tradition that doesn't matter at the end of the day. Valentine's this year we hosted Chinese New Year/Valentine's Day soccer matches in our backyard. Best Valentine's Day ever. We have all loved our non-traditional Thanksgivings these last two years. And Halloween in Taipei is great. Christmas was a blast too but different from any other we've had.

We can pull out the box of decorations, look at what is available locally and create a great holiday with a mix of what we bring with us and what we find in the place we live. I guess I'm learning (and re-learning) what matters to us is being together and making holidays a special day however we can, wherever we are. Maybe that's all we can take place to place. And it's probably enough really.

However, I am thinking of adding a new, very us tradition: summer Christmas and Thanksgiving dinner on Home Leave or RnR when we are in the US and can get the traditional foods in GF/DF forms. That might be right up our alley. A couple of my kids have never eaten stuffing and I need to fix that ;)

More Yehliu

So I forgot it was Easter this weekend but we took the kids to Yehliu on Saturday morning instead. So I guess I'm not totally out of it, just forgetful. (We usually try to do the egg hunt/fun stuff on Saturday morning and then celebrate the religious part of the holiday on Sunday. Makes it easier for us to focus on the really important stuff. So I forgot the egg hunt stuff today.) It's hard for me to remember a holiday that changes dates every year when I live in a country with zero advertising for it. Say what you will about commercialization but at least I knew when holidays were coming just by looking in the Target dollar section. Funny thing is that we have been talking about Easter a lot these last few weeks as we've had lessons at church and home about it. Guess it just slipped my mind that it was actually here finally. We have focused a lot on the meaning of Easter though so at least we got that part sort of right. I hope.

Anyway, as usual we'll celebrate the spiritual part of Easter on Sunday and do the egg hunt thing on Monday instead. The kids are on Spring break so it should work out anyway. In the meantime, it was only drizzling lightly at Yehliu so we were able to take in the hiking as well as the main areas. Pretty. It was nice too because there were a ton of Chinese tourists there and the hike got us out of the crowds for a bit. (For more on Yehliu, you can see my earlier post about it here.)

Puppet Museum

Lantern Festival

Yehliu (Yeliu) Geopark 野柳自然中心

My dad and I went to Yehliu on a rainy, misty day. We got pretty wet but it was worth it. We drove there on the highway from central Taipei. That route eventually dumped us out for a drive along the coast. It was gorgeous. However, I was driving so I'll have to get pics next time when I go back with my husband and kids. This pic is taken from the park itself. (We drove on highway 1 and 3 until we ran into 2. We stayed on that till just before the park.) 

One of the Queen's head formations

along the edge of the park 

Since it was a bit stormy, there were gorgeous big waves coming in. 

leopard

A view of the park. We only saw part of it because we were pushed for time and it was quite windy and wet. It was so worth the 50 NTD each that we spent though. (I think parking was another 50-100. Not bad at all.) There are some nice hikes in and around the park as well that I plan to check out with the family when we return. 

On the way home, we drove back home over the mountains on 2 until we turned onto 2里 all the way to Yangmingshan 陽明山。 (I have no idea how to say 2里 in English but that's what all the signs and my GPS say so it's probably what you'd want to know anyway). We came through Jinshan and Yangmingshan National Park. It was a great drive but the clouds quickly moved in and we couldn't see much. I am willing to bet it is absolutely gorgeous on a more clear day though. We'll have to check it out. We took the Taipei route because we were already downtown. The Yangmingshan route got us to our home faster though. Just depends on where you are coming from or going to. I think it was about 30-45 minutes depending on the route. Not bad. In any case, Jilong (Keelung) 基隆 and Yehliu 野柳 are well worth the trip. It is a great day trip and I think we'd like staying over for a night or two as well. It's a beautiful place. 

Information about Yehliu Park:  http://www.ylgeopark.org.tw/ENG/info/OpenInfo_en.aspx
Information on how to get there: http://www.ylgeopark.org.tw/ENG/info/TrafficContent_en.aspx

Popcorn at the flower market

My dad said the popcorn was okay but sweet. (I didn't dare eat it due to the coating. Never know where wheat is gonna hide.) Really we just wanted to use a popcorn vending machine for fun.

We're back! (Jianguo Flower market)

I won't bore you with the details but let's just say my camera broke, we were really busy, we've had a visitor, and my computer broke for awhile. Which all equals blog neglect. I'm going to try to get 365 posts up over the two years we are here. Also, we're having way too much fun and enjoying life way too much to post daily. I like it when people give me a look at other posts though so I'm going to keep going on my year in pics. Just might take 2 years. (And it might include a bunch of phone pics since I'm still deciding how/when/with what to replace the camera.)

The Jianguo Flower market is located under the freeway. It is a parking garage most weekdays (except around Chinese New Year) and a flower/plant market on the weekend. Definitely worth a visit.  You can park at the Daan Park garage, at other under-freeway parking down the road a bit from the flower market, or you can easily walk from the Daan metro (and soon the Daan Park metro.) 

Happy Year of the Snake! Here's a fun AIT video for the new year. 

One of the reasons everyone loves Costco here...

or so I hear. We're in it for the shelf life soymilk and the gluten free tortilla chips. But the cheese, milk, and other dairy products seem to be pretty popular. The prices are supposed to be pretty good too. I wouldn't know since the last time I bought any of that stuff regularly was 2004. Some of my friends have said it's a good deal though.