Pingxi

No fear, not a repeat blog. Just a repeat visit. 

I joined a jovial group of friends for Angela's birthday. Angela is a Taiwanese teacher at Gloria and she has become a pretty good friend. She's been in the last couple posts as well, so not too new. But her birthday came and went and she invited me to be a part of it. 

She wanted to go to Pingxi to light off some sky lanterns because she had never done it before. I was actually the only one in the group who had - Bonnie the Veteran. Ohhhh yeah. 

So we took of for Pingxi. It was a pretty good group. I'll spare you the names and you can just look at the pictures. But it was really fun. The rain sprinkled for a bit and we were all worried that we couldn't light the lanterns. But it held off and our day wasn't ruined. 

Instead of only going to Pingxi, we went to all the little towns on the railroad. It was cool. Each stop had its own old town. The area is really big on wishes and dreams too. My kinda place. 

One of the places is known for its chicken rolls and strangely enough, no chicken is involved. Haha. It's vegetarian but apparently the name in Chinese is very similiar to the Taiwanese word for chicken. Weird, but they were DELICIOUS. Sara and I wanted about six. But we only had one.

At the same place, they had these bamboo shoots that people write their wishes on and then hang anywhere they want. Literally anywhere - from trees, fences, railroad posts, mailboxes, signs. It's cool to see them everywhere. There was a big pile of them that had fallen off and were going to be burned or thrown away so Sara and I decided to 'rescue' a couple. Everyone said I stole someones dreams but really I saved it. And I didn't let anyone translate it either, because it's not my wish. But it looks cool. And I bought a blank one to write my own on, so I have a nice pair of them. 

Next we set off the lanterns. None of them went up in flames so it was a huge success. And it was so pretty, as always, to see them ascend. I like them!! 

Sara's and my lantern

May the force be with you

the wishing tree

wishes

josh racing the crazy man

karen, chad, brandon, angie, debbie, josh i, sara

our lantern

the ascension 

wishes

the valley

suspension bridge

more wishes

make your own

After our trip, we headed off as a smaller group, to a dinner in Taipei. Brandon has two friends that recently bought a restaurant. It is French/Italian food and super delicious. I ate so much. And it was after closing because they stayed open just for us. So we got to talk to Zach and Lynn (the owners) and got to hear about the good and bad of opening a restaurant. Mostly good though, it sounds like. And I'll definitely be going back. It was so good. 

Next post will be soon! I've started my Chinese lessons. But I don't want to tack it on at the end of this! So come back soon! 

Birthdays and Fugui

It will come as no surprise that another year in the life of Bonnie has come and gone. And what a year it has been. Started off with a graduation from university and finished with life in Taiwan. Holy moly.

mike and amber

amber

the boys

ching shi elementary teachersss

i mustache you a question

alex and amber

drew and josh

josh

roon!

josh roon alex

kay!

The celebrations here were pretty fun. A group of friends met for dinner at Vigorous and then ventured out to a lounge bar for drinks and merriment. It was fun. A number of friends that I don't see very often came out so that improved my night. 

Sunday, my actual birthday, was filled with frisbee - as it should be. We played for a long time and then had a relaxing night of watching movies and eating pizza. It wasn't the most eventful birthday but it was a good one. And now I'm a whole year older. 

Now for Tomb Sweeping Day. On Wednesday, 4/4 we had a school holiday. It is Tomb Sweeping Day. And the Taiwanese do just that - sweep, clean, tidy up the graves of their ancestors. They have to keep those ghosts happy. 

But Rooney and I took advantage of the day off and went for a wonderful little drive up to the northern most point in Taiwan - Fugui Cape. The day was perfect for a drive - sunny and warm. And we didn't get lost once, though I was pretty sure we wouldn't make it all the way to our destination. It was such a nice drive. The getting there was as much a part of it as the arrival.

I have wanted to get up to the cape for a while now so it was nice to get up there. On the beach there are some geologically cool things like bright green algae growing on volcanic rock. And wind cut stones that are all sorts of freaky shapes. It was pretty cool. The beach itself wasn't very clean - Rooney almost literally stumbled on a dead pig. But the area was beautiful and the day couldn't have been better.

We also found a cute little beach town on the coast that we will probably go back to. And we found some Texas BBQ places and a promising water park that we're super jazzed about. All in all a really fine day.

saltwater shower

the lighthouse

And lastly, on Saturday night, we went into Taipei for a joint birthday party. It was at a club and had an extremely vague theme of 'retro'. No one was really sure what that meant exactly so I dressed 80s, Rooney went 20s, Carson went 50s and Yolanda went 30s. Haha. It was pretty fun though. There were a lot of teachers there and again, I got to see a bunch of teachers who I don't see very often. It's becoming a good trend, that is!

jenny! 

angie!

sara and rach

that's all she wrote folks.