Spring Festival and General Recap

I cannot believe that a) our wedding is less than 2 months from now, b) we've been in China for 9 months, and c) I have only posted twice since we arrived here! Actually, I can believe that last one. Big time procrastinating on a blog post. So much to catch up on. Let's start with 2 vacations ago: Spring Festival. It's called Spring Festival because of the Lunar calendar, but it's actually in February.

We went to Taipei, Taiwan, to hang out with Maria, Sarah, and Ada. It was the best! Ready to move to Taipei already. Here are some pics to help describe our trip:

 

Not gonna lie, hanging out with this kid was a major highlight of the trip! I mean, just look at her! How could one kid be so funny, adorable, and charismatic? We had met Ada before but this was the first quality time we'd been able to spend with her, and it was so much fun!!! For those who don't know, Ada is the daughter of Sarah, who is Brian's cousin. Sarah and her sister Maria work at Taipei American School and we want to move there and hang out with them every day. ;)

 

Brian and Maria in Tianmu

Brian and I took a bus trip to Wulai hot springs, and it was a perfect day. There were several different pools to soak in, and we got to chat with the locals a bit too.

Brian in his happy place :)

In true teacher fashion, I got sick as soon as vacation started, so we weren't as active around Taipei as we'd hoped to be. But we still got in a trip to the night market, took a cooking class, had a day trip to the beach, ate so much amazing food, drank great coffee, and had a couple of visits to Din Tai Fung for the most delicious pork dumplings ever!

After a few days in Taipei, Brian and I took a side trip to Alishan, a scenic national park. We got there easily, thanks to the high speed train, and settled into a lodge in the foggy mountains. It rained almost the whole time we were there, but it was really beautiful and lush. Our guesthouse was in the green tea plantations so we explored around there a bit.

There's a forest railway there, and you can take a train from village to village throughout the mountain area.

Our guesthouse offered to shuttle us to the entrance to the mountain park, so we spent a day hiking around in the fog and drizzle. It felt so comforting, just like the PNW! The air felt so clean and fresh - a nice break from the high pollution in Qingdao during that time. Here are some photos from our hike around Alishan.

 

having a little rest

... and on our last day, a bit more visibility of the mountains!

Then we were back to Taipei, daydreaming so hard about moving there that we forgot about our flight back to Qingdao and had to book a new one the next day! Oops ;) But it gave us more time with the cousins so that was great. Here are some more photos from the trip.

Street art

Walking around Tianmu (Sarah and Maria's neighborhood)

 

Then there was a perfectly beautiful flower garden filled with these hideous plastic bears! But people seemed pretty into them.

very nice bears

more of the park

Drizzly walk along the boardwalk

Kitten House - Then and Now. Brian in Taipei 2010 / 2016 :)

a drizzly walk along the boardwalk

little photographer

Brian, Sarah and Ada eating hand-shaved noodles, yum!

What a wonderful trip! Big thanks and hugs to Sarah and Maria for showing us such a great time, just like last time. We really hope we can move to Taipei in the next few years!

I've really lost track of time since we've been here. Everything I've heard about teaching has been true; the days, months, and year FLY by, it's a wild roller coaster of emotions working with kids, and I find myself neglecting so many things after each exhausting day at work (like this blog!). I'll get more into what's been going on lately in the next blog post, but until then, here are some snapshots our Winter here!

Exploring old town

wine and clams with Mr. Song at the shop!

It snowed!

This giant Christmas tree was up outside our local shopping mall until April ;)

mustache water chestnut

cute scene in the library with grade 2 :)

Chinese New Year decorations on our door

Mr. Song's Dumpling Class :)))))

Around Chinese New Year, Mr. Song invited us to dinner with his wife and son, who was visiting from out of town. Brian had spoken to him on the phone a few times in the shop and we were excited to finally meet him! They took us to a Dongbei-style restaurant where they throw a whole fish, tofu, mushrooms, spices, and broth into this giant iron pot inside the table. They line the outside with corn-flour dough, and cover it with a wooden slat and towels for 30 minutes. When it's done, you get this rich and hearty fish stew with corn biscuits to dip in. Delicious!

Mr. Song's family and us

As you've probably heard me say before, our friendship with Mr. Song has truly been one of our favorite things about living in Qingdao. We stopped taking our Chinese lessons after Christmas time (due to being busy, tired, and lazy about studying), but we spend every week looking forward to our weekend when we make our trip to Happy Family Market to buy groceries and sit try to speak Chinese with Mr. Song. We just never know what we're in store for when we join him in his wine stall - a long tea-drinking session, fresh draft beer in the morning (from the stall across from his) with rice and cured sausage, giant glasses of wine with fresh clams, freshly made pork dumplings... always accompanied by hilarious attempts at conversation. His personality is such a delightful mix of gruff and kind! Whenever we leave the market, my heart feels so full. Shopping for your week's groceries seems like such a small event, but this market really lives up to its name, and I feel so lucky that Mr. Song invited us to drink tea with him that first time. Oh, and for the longest time we thought his name was "Mr. Sun," (which we always called him) but when we went to dinner with his family, his son told us his last name was Song. Of course we would have been calling him the wrong name the whole time ;)

So, this post doesn't fully catch you up on our happenings here - we've also had another holiday where Allie and Matt came to visit! That, and other updates will have to wait until the next post! xo