SHUMS

SHUMS
I love having people visit us here. I also love getting back in contact with all of you. Please re-invite me to your blogs. I have tried to get on to several of them and I cant...

Thursday 21 February 2008

More Fun


I know I know another chinese new year post... Sorry to bore you yet again. I found all the pictures of the rest of the stuff we did over our break. We went to the National Palace Museum. It was full of lots of old stuff. My personal favorite was the Neolithic display. We saw pottery from 4000 BC. I was told I should be impressed by the jade that looked like a piece of pork or the jade carved to look like a cabbage. I have to say that this was not my personal high light of the museum. However they were old and it is impressive that someone has not tried to cook them yet. Since we were not allowed to take pics inside the museum, our pictures are of the grounds, which were beautiful. So, have you ever been shrimp fishing? Some of you may have but it was new to us. Ever since we moved here we have heard that we needed to go. We finally made it. It really is fun. Taylor is a die-hard fisherman, however, this was not professional by anymeans. Just a warehouse complete with three cement ponds. Two for shrimp fishing and one for fish fishing (that sounds weird). Jack loved holding the pole. It is not complicated or stratiegic at all. Just throw on a piece of chicken liver and you are set. We also took a ride up the Maokong Gondola. This was really beautiful. It was so rainey though we did not stay at the top for long. Just long enough to buy my sister Janelle some tea leaves. Maokong Mountian is known for its tea. At the top are loads of tea houses and a HUGE temple. The ride and view were both amazing.

Over Chinese New Year we did recieve some gifts from Taylor's students and work. It is customary here to buy these large boxes of giant fruit as gifts. Ours had "World Apples" and Korean Pears. As you can see they are gianormous!! We loved them. We also received a few boxes of chocolates but they were gone before I could take a picture. We are now in the middle of the Lantern Festival here. I am sure my next post will cover that really well for your viewing pleasure.... TTFN.

Monday 18 February 2008

Jack Jack





OK, I know that Jack may be a bit young for this but he tells us when he is going pooh so we decided to start potty training. He is so cute with his new potty seat I just had to snap a shot. He has gone 3 times now. I am so proud. He is getting big so fast. He will kill me for this one day but I just couldn't resist.


Across the street is the biggest mall I have ever been in. On rainy days like we have had lately it proves to be a lifesaver. The whole 5th and 7th floor are dedicated to kids. The 10th and 11th floors are restaurants... also a lifesaver. anyway, they have a great ball pit obviously. I thought these pics were so cute... what a great kid. I love him so much.

Sunday 17 February 2008

The sun came out!!! (for one day)


We have had a lot of fun thise Chinese New Year. We just did a lot of sight seeing around Taipei and we cought up on movies. I found a great bootleg guy who gets all the good movies... shhhhhh dont tell.
The weather here has been terrible. It rained 34 days strait.... yup we are rained out. The sun finally came out on Saturday and we went out all day. It was so nice to walk down the street without an unbrella. We went to the Childrens Rec. Center. This is a place that has old school Chinese activities. It shows the old artwork and way of life. It also has the old style toys and food. It is hands on so it really is fun. It also has an amusement park so we spent all day. This slide show is of that day.

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR








HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!!!!!

Welcome to the year of the Rat and it is an Earth year as well. Jack was born in the year of the dog and Taylor is the monkey. I just learned that because I was born in January I am actually born in a different year than I thought. My whole life I thought I was born in the year of the monkey. (thats what I get for trusting the placemat at J.J. Hunan Chinese Restaurant). I am actually born in the year of the Ram.
Looking back at our two week vacation, we are having a hard time remembering what we did. We just relaxed a lot and saw some sights. I was waiting for a parade or something but nothing happened. Just a lot of crazy fire crackers going off every 20 minutes. Finally today a parade came down our road. I have been dieing to see dancing dragons. Today my Chinese dream came true. This slide show is the parade.

Monday 4 February 2008

"I'm too sexy"


No your eyes are not playing tricks on you... well maybe they are but not here. Yes Taylor is modeling!!! After much begging and pleading I finally let Taylor accept a modeling job. Yeah right!!!! All the begging and pleading was done on my part. Our agent called and said that they needed a "dad" for this Disney Baby Clothing shoot. Taylor refused to be involved. I had to use my "wife" tactics to persuade him to do it. Just so you know, it went great!! In the shoot, they gave him a new wife and two new kids. He liked having a wife who doesn't beg him to do photo shoots, he he he. So here are the pics I took of him showing off is studly self. ENJOY!!!!

Totally Random

So today I decided to work on our blog... only I have nothing exciting to say and we have not done anything very cool this month. So I am adding some really random pictures of us. Some are of Jack being a total mess (not all that unusual). Some are of a new night market we checked out finally. It is called "Snake Alley" and for good reason. We did watch a snake be disemboweled right in front of us. Then the "surgeon" drank the blood and offered it to the crowd for a large some of money. I literally had to turn my head. But I couldn't help but take a peek at the whole process. It was gross but still morbidly interesting. There are a few pics of the subway and of our skyline, which I will miss terribly.
This is Taylor's last week until the Chinese New Year. We are so excited he gets off two weeks for the holiday (with pay). We have a HUGE list of all the tourist places we want to see. I am sure that blog entry will be really cool. Apparently the whole city shuts down and it is really quiet. I can't imagine what that would sound like... Quiet in this city? I can not even talk on my cell phone and stand on the side walk. It is too loud to hear anything. We are really looking forward to the holiday. I have mailed out Chinese New Year cards. I just found out yesterday that I may have the wrong postage on some of them. If you do not receive one.... well, sorry. One of the disadvantages of not learning this language very well. The teller told me "Ar Shr San" ($23) I heard "Shr San" ($13)... oops. So, oh well.