Busy December!

Fortunately I've been pretty busy this month with the holidays and traveling a bit on the weekends. Here are some pics of what I've seen and done lately. 

Lately I've been eating a lot of hot pot which is the custom here when winter comes around and it starts getting chilly. Hot pot is basically do it yourself soup. There's a stove in the middle of the table and they bring you a big pot of whatever kind of broth you order. Then you get to pick all the ingredients you want in your soup. They have lots of veggies, all kinds of tofu, thinly sliced meats so they cook quickly. The one we're eating in the picture is half duck and half chicken. They also have all kinds of strange Taiwanese things you can throw in there like ducks blood which I still haven't tried (mainly because it looks like a nice juicy kidney) and some of different types of Chinese medicine-which I learned the hard way you're not supposed to eat they just use it to flavor the soup. Some of it looks like berries or beans. Anyways one of them slipped into my spoon and I ate it. I've never tried to eat fire before but I imagine that's probably what it feels like. 

 A couple weekends ago a friend of mine invited me to visit her hometown and stay with her family. She's from a city called Yilan which is on the East coast of Taiwan. I was really excited about it because all I've heard since I got here is that the beaches on the West coast (where I live) really suck compared to the East Coast. Unfortunately, it was a pretty gloomy weekend but the beaches were incredible nonetheless. At the very least they were so different from any beaches I've ever seen before. The pictures don't really do them justice. We actually went to two. One of them had these huge jagged cliffs that settled into the water and instead of sand the bed was made up of stones. The other was a sand beach surrounded by beautiful mountains as you can see below. To get from one to the other we had to pass by the port which was loaded with seafood places and the coolest boats I'd ever seen. Some of them just looked like  shabby, worn out boats but others were brightly colored authentic Taiwanese sail boats. I wish I could've gotten some pics but it was kinda hard from the back of a scooter. Maybe next time!

 That weekend we also went to Danshui, the sea side district of Taipei. It was one of my favorite places so far. Here's a few pics of the harbor. We ate soooo much! Fried squid, ice cream, oyster omelets, sour plum juice (not my fave), and even more fried stuff. We also went to this restaurant that is pretty famous for a dish called Ah gei. So from what I understood (and tasted) the outside is made of tofu and the inside is stuffed with glass noodles (just a clear, gooey type of noodle) as you can see in the second pic. It comes in a kind of sweet and sour sauce. Overall it was pretty good. I still don't think tofu doesn't have much of a taste which explains why they drown it in sauce. They tried to get me to eat stinky tofu again but needless to say I think once was more than enough.

My friends insisted I played this game that they played as children. It reminded me of the carnival games back at home only instead of just winning a gold fish the game IS the gold fish. Poor fishies...half of them were already dead O_o 

We took a ferry to a different part of the harbor where there was this huge bridge. I've seen it before in pictures but I never realized it's actually a pedestrian bridge. And everyone finds "love" on the other side (hehe I couldn't help myself).

I hope you're all having a blessed holiday season full of joy, family, and of course delicious food! I'm definitely missing Christmas in American with my family but there are enough familiar things here to help me celebrate the holidays in my own little ways. I have to admit a few weeks ago when I went to Starbucks and they handed me my cappuccino in one of those red cups my heart fluttered just a tad. But most importantly Jesus is the reason for the season and I feel incredibly blessed to know no matter where I travel I will always get to celebrate Christmas with him by my side.

Love and best wishes!!!