Trains and Toilets

So, I have some more stories to share about my adventure in Taiwan with Danielle. I had some new experiences that were unique, to say the least.

One day I went with Danielle and her friend Leah to a city on the south of the island called Tainan. We rode a high speed train to get there, which was pretty cool. Next to airplanes, this was probably my fastest speed of travel so far in my life. What would have taken us 8 hours by normal speed train only took 2, so that was pretty neat. Danielle and Leah had to do some work in Tainan, but we also got to see some of the big sights. We went to a Confucious temple, which was pretty interesting, and to a "castle" built by the Dutch and then rebuilt by the Japanese known as Anping Fort. The trees at the fort had these super long roots hanging down, and we enjoyed taking some pretty funny pictures. We also went shopping in a little market that was super cute. One of my favorite things there were these little waffle type things they made right there on the street in the shape of funny things like a chicken, motorcycle and gun. Brilliant, right? haha. On our train ride back to Taipei that night we found out that we were under a tsunami alert. It was kind of scary for me for a little bit, but praise the Lord nothing ever happened!

Another great adventure was to a very, shall I say unique, restaurant in Taipei called Modern Toilet. Several people on facebook commented that they had seen this place on the Food Network, but I can I just tell you that the real-life experience is far greater than anything you can watch on t.v. It was pure craziness! The toilet was their theme and boy did they stick to it! The food (which was not good at all!) was served in toilet and bathtub shaped bowls. We sat on toilets for our seats and ate on plexi-glass that was covering a bathtub. There were little swirls of pink poop on the wallpaper and poop shaped light fixtures. I told Danielle that I think I only enjoyed this experience because I was in Taiwan and it was so crazy that it was funny. Had I been in America, I probably would have thought it was disgusting. But, we definitely laughed a lot! Modern Toilet was in an area called Ximen, which is a fun pedestrian shopping area. I went there on my last trip too, and it's a great place to roam around and have fun!

Needless to say, these experiences were really fun. All in all, it was a fantastic trip! Taiwan is such a neat country full of beauty and warmth. I'm so glad I had to opportunity to return for a second trip and experience more of its greatness! Danielle was a wonderful host and it was great to get to see her in her element in her Asian home! Although, I must admit, that I'm ready for my best friend to come back to the U.S. in August!

Going and Coming

I'm home, finally! This may have been my most exciting travel experience to date. Going and coming back from Taiwan were both definitely adventures! I had such a wonderful time with Danielle! She is the best and we had so much fun together!!! I will tell you more about my trip in another blog- this post is dedicated strictly to my traveling stories. My, oh my!

Going

I attempted to leave for Taiwan on Thursday, March 3 at 10 a.m. When I arrived at the airport, I found out that because my passport was expiring in less than 6 months (June 25 to be exact) Taiwan wasn't going to let me in their country. So, I ended up having to go and get a new passport that day. It was crazy! But God took care of everything and I had a new passport and flight and was on my way about 8 hours later than anticipated. There were lots of crazy things that day - a parking bus that broke down, immediately followed by a broken escalator and elevator, my new flight to San Francisco was delayed ... it was a lot to take in, but thankfully I was not stressed or worried - I knew that I'd get to Taiwan eventually. My biggest concern was making sure that Danielle knew I wouldn't be coming in at 10 p.m. on Friday, but rather at 6 a.m. on Saturday. She did get the message, which was so good and we talked in the airport in San Francisco before I left for Taipei. I finally arrived at 5 a.m. on Saturday morning and continued a VERY long day until about 9 that night when I crashed.

Coming

As I'm sure all of you are aware, there was an earthquake that hit Japan on Friday, March 11. Well, I was still in Taiwan at that time. We were under a tsunami warning, but praise the Lord, we were not hit at all. I was concerned because I was supposed to be flying back to America via Tokyo on Sunday and so I called to check on my flights and they told me everything would probably be fine. Tokyo wasn't hit that badly and so I was trusting everything would work out. When I got to the airport on Sunday at 8 a.m., I found out that my flight had been delayed until 1 p.m. - I'm assuming because of the earthquake, but no real reason was given. Danielle's friends who brought me to the airport had to get back for church, so I said bye to them and entertained myself in the airport for a long time. I ended up getting sick around 9 a.m., but I think it was just because I hadn't had a lot of sleep. Great way to start the trip, though! haha. I boarded my plane for Tokyo at around 1 and as we were traveling down the runway, I found out that our plane had air conditioner problems and we'd have to get it worked on for a while. We sat on the runway for over an hour and finally left about 3 p.m. When we got to Tokyo, I knew I'd already missed my connecting flight for Dallas and that I'd have to be at the mercy of Japan Airlines to hopefully get back home sometime soon. They rescheduled me on a flight to LA that was leaving within 30 minutes so I rushed to that gate. One good thing was I was bumped up to Premium seating - which was really nice for my long flight! I had a nice cushy chair with a pop-up foot rest, lots of little amenities and I was able to sleep most of the time! I arrived in LA at 1 p.m. their time and was so thankful to be back on American soil! I had a four hour lay-over in LA, so I bonded with some of my fellow travel buddies who I'd been with since Taipei. There were some really sweet people and we all laughed and bonded over our exhaustion. Our flight ended up being delayed (surprise, surprise) and so I think we finally left LA around 6:30. We landed in Dallas at 11 p.m. - still Sunday to me (maybe the longest Sunday of my life) and when I called my parents they told me they were booking me a hotel for the night. I know they were really worried about me and all my travels - especially since I was by myself. I really just wanted to be home at that point, but since Brownwood is a good 3 hours from DFW airport, it would've been around 3 a.m. by the time I got home. So I took them up on their offer and stayed at the Sheraton that night. It was so nice to be in a bed! I woke up yesterday morning at 7 a.m. and drove back to Brownwood. Whew! I have no idea how many hours of traveling that was- but it was exhausting for sure! I felt like I got hit by a bus. Thankfully I was able to rest yesterday and now, I'm ready for the week!

As you can tell, I had quite a trip! I can't wait to share more about the fun things that I did in Taiwan! It is such a beautiful country, full of wonderful people, including my best friend! I had a blast! But I am glad to be home ... finally!

Taipei Take 2

Ni Hao!

I'm writing from Taipei, Taiwan on my second adventure in this wonderful city. I'm here visiting my best friend, Danielle, in her Asian home. Just like all of my other trips with Danielle, we have been busy pretty much non-stop. We've seen some really beautiful places, had some great food and I've met some wonderful people! There are still times, just like last year, when it just hits me that I'm in Asia. We'll round a corner, and WHOA, a smell will hit me. Or we will be walking down a street laden with flashing signs, millions of scooters and cars, smells and noises everywhere and I will experience a little sensory overload. Sounds fun and exciting, right? It totally is!

Danielle knows so much more about this city this time - she can get around by bus, carry on conversations with the shop owners trying to sell me crazy things and knows where to get all of the best food - like big chicken and jawza. Here are some pictures from the past few days.

Yangmingshan

Sharyl, Danielle and I hiking Yangmingshan Mountain

Dinosaurs at the National Taiwanese Museum

Leah, Danielle and I at the Shilin Night Market

Trying candied strawberrys - an explosion of flavor in your mouth!

Big chicken! It's as big as your face!

Flora Expo - so many gorgeous flowers!

As you can see, we are having a wonderful time! More pictures and stories to come!

Blogiversary

Monday is my one year blogiversary. I must admit, I enjoy blogging a lot more than I thought that I would. It's so neat to look back over the past year and see all of the places I've been, the things I've learned, people I've seen and how I've grown.

Believe it or not, here are all of the places I've been in the past year - Orlando, Florida; Galveston, Houston, Amarillo, Dallas and El Paso, Texas; Kansas City, Missourri; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Washington, D.C.; New York City, New York; and Taipei, Taiwan. (I provided links so you can read about the adventures you may have missed out on!)

Some other big changes include a job promition to Director of Media Relations, moving offices from the Harrison House to Packer, moving out of my apartment and into a house with a new roommate and my family moving from Canyon to El Paso.

I feel like this past year I have grown a lot in my relationship with the Lord. I'm learning more about who God is and how He loves me. I'm also working on figuring out His plan for my life. That's definitely a process that I know will continue the rest of my life, but God's given me a new confidence in who I am in Him, which has really changed my perspective.

Lots of new people have come into my life - new friends, a new pastor in my church, a new president at my school, a new Sunday School class.

Not to mention I joined the Quarter Century Club in November - being 25 has rocked my world! I'm in my mid-twenties. Whoa.

It's definitely been a pretty big year in the life of me! Thanks for being a part of it! I look forward to the next year of blogging - sharing about my trips, my thoughts on God and life in general, updates and just for fun stuff too.

So, here follow me as my Tales of Wanderlust continue...

Medical Masks and a 3D Wonderland

On Saturday we took a break. It had been such a busy week, that we really needed some down time, so that morning we stayed in pajamas and watched movies and just enjoyed hanging out. Around 4 we headed to Miramar which is a fun area about an hour from Danielle's apt. via the reliable transportation venue known as the MRT.

We met up with Danielle's friend Jenny and went to dinner at T.G.I.Friday's. (If you are keeping track, this was my second time at Friday's and yes, we ate American food a lot!) Jenny is another friend from the university, and she's really sweet! We had a great time hanging out with her, and she actually helped us film a little more for the music video. Danielle and I bought some cute medical masks the day before and so, we decided the Miramar mall would be a great place for them to make their appearance! We wore them up and down the escalator while Jenny filmed us and we did get a few looks! Then we went outside, where it was raining, but the ferris wheel was lit up and it was so fun!

It was about 7:15 now, which meant we needed to rush upstairs for the main event - we were seeing Alice in Wonderland in 3D at the IMAX! Whoa! I know, sounds crazy and intense, right? Well it was! I had never seen a movie at the IMAX or in 3D, so both at once was quite a thrill. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it! I would recommend it!

Then we rode the fun ferris wheel and got a good view of the city lit up at night. Our way home on the MRT was an adventure as well. First, I didn't get the memo that we were changing trains at one point and almost stayed on while Danielle and Jenny got off. Seeing as how I hadn't been paying attention at all that week on where we were, where we were going or how to get back to Danielle's, I'm really thankful that I realized they left before the doors closed and I was lost forever.

Then, while we were in the Main Station, Danielle and I hopped on a train heading home (so we thought). We got to a stop that Danielle didn't recognize and we realized we were on the Orange line - which is not the way home. (Side note: earlier that day Danielle had mentioned that the orange line was the only one I hadn't been on yet, so now I can say I've been on them all). So, we waited for another train to take us back to the main station, hopped on and we were back again. We went down a level, got on another train and as soon as the doors closed, we both realized that we were on an orange train again! What are the chances? We both died laughing and I think everyone thought we were crazy foreigners. As soon as we got to the next station a train heading back to the main station was arriving at the same time, so we ran from one train to the other and headed back to the main station AGAIN. haha. I can report that this time we were certain that we were getting on a green and 30 minutes later than we anticipated, we arrived at Danielle's home MRT. Whew! It was so funny and every trip has to have at least one story like this, right? I don't think you can truly say it's an adventure if you don't get lost at least once!

On Sunday we went back to the jade market in the morning and then met up with Simon again for the much anticipated "Lunch with Kalie Lowrie" and the WT students in Taipei. We ate at this really neat restaurant called Five Dimes which looked kind of like a sunken ship. Several of my mom's former students met us there including Dana, Shiang, Alli, Joey, Ching and Vicky. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed all of the food they ordered!

That afternoon we finished filming our video with the rooftop scences and the cute little girls. Then we finalized "Just Dance, Taipei," had dinner with Ken and Sharyl and I packed up my stuff. Danielle went with me to the airport on Monday morning and then I headed back home via Tokyo.

Can I just say that I'm kind of sad to be writing this last post, because that means my trip is really officially over. :( Here are some other tell-tale signs that I'm back to reality-

1. I unnpacked my suitcase this morning, which basically meant putting all of the contents into my dirty clothes basket

2. I slept for 12 hours last night, hopefully helping me to finally get over the jet lag that has slowed me down all week.

3. My facebook pictures are posted -I condensed my 750 pics down to 132 for those who are interested, click here.

Well, this concludes the Adventures of Danielle and Kalie in Taiwan. I hope you enjoyed it! I have had a great time sharing all of my favorite stories from my amazing trip to the beautiful country of Taiwan!

Monkeys at the Zoo

Well, it's 6 a.m. and guess who's up? Me! Yep - jet lag and I have become good friends over the past few days. Apparently my body thinks that 6 is my new wake up time, but if that's the only repercussion from an awesome trip, then I'll take it! If you haven't been able to tell from all of my pictures and stories - this was one of my favorite trips EVER! And I'm having so much fun blogging about it and sharing all of my memories.

On Friday, Danielle went into work in the morning and I got to go with her. I met all of her co-workers and even got to be a part of a birthday party! There was some awesome chocolate cake involved, which was great!

This was our day to go to the Taipei Zoo and let me just share this crazy story from the way to the zoo. We got on the MRT and I just happened to look at this guy sitting down beside us and he looked familiar. Keep in mind that I know a whole whopping like 6 people in this country so I didn't really think it was possible to know him. He looked up at me, though and put his glasses on and it turns out it was Danielle's friend Eugene that I had met the previous Saturday. Isn't that so crazy! In a city of 3 million, the chances of running into someone I know is like 0.000000001% and it happened!

Ok, now to the zoo - it only cost $2 to get in, which was awesome! Especially considering that this was the best zoo we'd ever been to! The Taiwanese are very visual people and this zoo was so aesthetically pleasing. The way they divided the animals up was by geographic area and when you were in that section, it looked like that part of the world! Australia felt like a jungle, the penguin area was like the Artic with evergreen trees and snowcapped glaciers, there was Africa and Asia and Formosa - it was all so neat! We saw Frankie the giant Panda - which was really cool! And you know - lions, tigers, bears (oh my!), monkeys, flamingos, koalas, giraffes, rhinos and hippos and just about anything you can think of, we probably saw it.

Our favorite animals were the monkeys - which is so funny! I think they were the most lively and entertaining, so we found ourselves drawn to them a lot. We had been saying all week that we felt like monkeys, because people liked to stare at us a lot, so it was really funny that they were our favorites! This little family of chimps provided us with entertainment for quite a while!

The zoo is also one of the great locations from our music video. Danielle set up her tripod and flip camera on the ground outside the entrance (drawing quite a crowd) and we did some dancing. There's a couple of times in the video when you see me dancing kind of awkwardly - that is was my warm up when I didn't know Danielle was filming ... hence the awkward, haha.

That night we went with Ken and Sharyl to "Green Tablecloth" which is their favorite restaurant in their neighborhood. It was really good food! My favorite that night was the Kung Po chicken, but I actually liked the pinapple shrimp too, which was really surprising if you know me and my disdain for eating almost anything under the sea. After dinner we filmed some more for the video in the night market area. Ken makes a cameo appearance during our awkward dance - he's the high five guy.

To close Friday, I'll leave you with my favorite picture and quote of the day from Danielle:

"There are so many good things about us that we like!"

Chasing Waterfalls

Thursday we went with Ken and Sharyl to a little village south of Taipei called Wulai to see the awesome waterfall there. No one had been before so it was quite an adventure! We took the MRT (metro) to a stop called Gonguan and then the only instructions that we had were to look for an unnumbered bus by a 7-Eleven. Amazingly enough we found a bus (which did have a number!), hopped on and away we went. It's funny because we had no idea where the bus was taking us really and so we just rode it to the very last stop and then started walking. It was fun to get out of the city center into a more rural area.

One thing that really struck me was the mix of cultures. We were in the middle of this small town in Taiwan and there were Mazda's and BMW's on the road and English music playing in the little stores. Wulai is known for their aboriginal people and so they had native headdresses and costumes right next to a can of Coke. Crazy!

We ended up walking all the way to the waterfall and it was so beautiful! We were on this windy road on the side of a mountain with wildflowers growing on it. There was a river that some people were swimming in, which we thought was crazy because it was still kind of chilly. But it turns out that there were hot springs there, so the people weren't as crazy as we thought.

The waterfall was breathtaking! It was over 300 ft. high and we took a cable car up above it into this mountain. At the top of the mountain we climbed lots and lots of stairs but it was worth it for the view! The scenery was beautiful!

There was this little amusement park up at the top that must have been closed for the season but it was pretty comical. Danielle and I also road a little ride which was so weird but we had fun! I think it was supposed to be scary because they had all of these things popping up at you and moving around. Danielle screamed when she heard a sound like a gun and then I screamed as a gigantic spider was attacking us. We spent about an hour and a half walking around then took the cable car back down and did some filming for our music video.

To get back to the village we took this little bitty train which was really funny. When we were back in Wulai I tried bamboo rice, which apparently is really famous there. It was sticky rice and other things (meat?) that had been cooked inside of a bamboo shoot. It was actually pretty good! I tried to be adventurous at least once everyday and usually it turned out alright. :)

That night Danielle and I went to dinner at a restaurant called The Diner which served all American food and even had Dr. Pepper! All in all it was a really fun day!

Foreigner Day in Taipei

I made it back to the good old U.S. of A yesterday around 4 p.m. our time, I think it was 5 a.m. on Tuesday in Taiwan. After such an amazing trip, I must admit that it was really hard to say goodbye to Danielle. We had SO MUCH fun together over the past week! I am so thankful for my sweet friend!

Now, I'm going to continue sharing about our adventures:

Wednesday - Foreigner Day

This was probably my favorite full day of fun. We started out in the morning heading to the hot springs at Beitou with Bev. It was so beautiful! We went to this placed called Beitou Thermal Valley which was the natural hot spring. It was boiling water that was around 90 degrees Celsius! There was all of this steam coming off of the water due to the heat and it felt so mystical. Then we went to the public hot springs pools.

There were four levels of pools with increasing temperatures. We started out in the bottom pool and can I just say that they must not see foreigners often, because everyone was staring at us like we were monkeys or something. It's hard not be self-conscious when you have over 100 pairs of eyes staring at you, but oh well, what can you do? We went up to the third pool, and it was too hot to even stick our feet in. Danielle hopped out really fast and everyone laughed. I knew that if she couldn't handle it, I probably couldn't either, so we headed down to the second pool which didn't seem that hot anymore. After about 20 more minutes we were done with the hot pools. It was nice and relaxing, but you don't want to stay in too long or you get overheated!

That afternoon Danielle and I headed to Taipei 101. I don't know if you remember my post about this one, but 101 is actually a large skyscraper that was the world's tallest building until the end 0f 2009, not a class on the history of Taipei, haha. This was so much fun! Obviously it is the tallest building that I've ever seen in my life! We went up to the observation deck on the 89th floor and got an awesome view of this incredible city! Then we went up to the 91st floor which had an outdoor deck. It was freezing cold, so we didn't stay out too long, but Danielle was able to find the area where she lives, so that was fun! We also identified some of the big sights like the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial, Miramar and the MacArthur bridges (named for Gen. MacArthur!!).

One really interesting thing about this building is that there is this HUGE gold ball in the center of the building (I think it was on the 91st floor) that stabilizes the entire skyscraper. When the wind blows the building, this ball makes sure it doesn't topple over - isn't that crazy? It kind of freaked me out. What if the huge wire cables holding it up snapped? We'd be crushed - literally!

After 101, we headed to the Shilin Night Market. Sharyl met up with us there and it was really neat! Night markets are really big in Taiwan - everyone goes to them. There are vendors everywhere with food, clothes, shoes and almost anything else you can imagine. I tried the famous black pearl milk tea here and it was really pretty good. It was black tea w/ milk and these little black tapioca balls. The weirdest part was chewing something while drinking - not something I'm really used to. I also tried dumplings and flat bread which were both really good. We went over to the food market area and it was pretty crazy! The smells were not so good - stinky tofu, oyster omelets and lots of other things. As you can see, this was a day full of new experiences - very different, but all so fun!

Just Dance, Taipei Style!

Check out the fun dancing adventures of me and Danielle throughout Taipei. Special thanks to Ken, Sharyl, Jenny, Simon, Dana, Shiang, Ching, Alli, Joey, Vicky, Melody, Carmen, panda, and the random others who didn't know they were filmed that helped make this video so AWESOME! When in doubt, just dance!

If you are having problems viewing this video, you should go here! You do not want to miss out on this. I promise!

Hao Kan

We have done so much since the last time that I wrote that I'm not sure where to begin! First of all, Taiwan is beautiful and Taipei is just amazing! I think it is one of the most unique cities I've ever been to. It's very metropolitan but then there are mountains and streams randomly dispersed everywhere. It's really green and pretty here. They are definitely in spring right now - flowers are blooming everywhere and everything is luscious and you know, gorgeous!

Monday - A Drive up the Coast

Danielle's boss' wife Bev (remember her name because I'll talk about her a lot!) took us on a drive up to the Northern Coast. It was AMAZING! Now I can say I've seen the Pacific Ocean from both sides - crazy! It was a rainy day so the water was really choppy and the waves were huge! We were kind of on a cliff, so we looked down a couple hundred feet to the water (I think, I'm not a good judge of distance).

Then we went to this little village called Jiu Fen which was so quaint and fun! It reminded us of Europe. There were cobblestone streets and tiny little roads with shops all along - that is one thing that I have not had a hard time finding here - shopping! It's everywhere! I've had to try to contain myself b/c I could go pretty crazy very easily! Especially when the money I have feels like play money and I don't have a good sense of how much everything is in American dollars. (For instance I accidentally ordered $6 gelato the other day - that is ridiculous in any country, but oh well, I'm on vacation!)

We had lunch at this little restaurant with an awesome view of the coast! This was also my favorite Chinese meal so far - I got pepper beef and it tasted like pot roast. Pretty wonderful! Then we drove back to Taipei, which took about an hour and a half. We were pretty wiped out by this point because we had been busy for three solid days, plus I was still recovering from jet lag. So, we had dinner at this cute little pizza place by Danielle's apt. called Mary Jane's then stayed in that night.

Tuesday - An American Day in Taipei

Danielle went into work on Tuesday morning and I took a while getting ready. Then, Bev came and picked me up to go get a haircut. I was a little nervous about getting my haircut in Taiwan, because I was afraid I would turn out looking Asian, haha. But Danielle said it was so much fun that I just had to try. The whole experience took an hour and half - including a hand, neck and shoulders massage with scented oils, calming tea and a great head massage! It was so relaxing and a great way to get refreshed! Danielle met us there and got her hair cut too. Then we headed to the National History Museum to see the Van Gogh exhibit that was on display.

I didn't realized it before I went, but I have seen a lot of Van Gogh in my life - in Paris, London, Chicago, New York. I've seen a lot of his really famous works too, so I wasn't really that impressed with this exhibit, but it was fun to see it with Danielle and impart a little bit of my knowledge of impressionism on her. She was enlightened, of this I am sure. Haha. The painting that I liked the most was called "Flowers in a Blue Vase." We even got to ride on a Van Gogh bus to the exhibit. It reminded me of the Sound of Music tour bus we rode on in Salzburg, so it was fun!

That night was went with Danielle's sweet co-workers, Ken and Sharyl, to Ximen which is a super fun area that reminds me of Times Square in New York. They have the big video screens, tons of American stores and lights everywhere. It was a lot of fun. We had dinner at T.G.I.Friday's and then walked around. I said this was my American day, because it felts like things we would do in the states. (that's what they call the US here)