How long we’ve been here: 8 months as of the 5th- that’s 242 days!! We’re only four months away from our one-year anniversary in Taiwan!
Favourite thing to eat:
Dave: Its Mango Season! Okay yes
I have said this many times, but for my birthday I got 3 mangos and they were
all different and amazing! Currently the Black Cod has been my new favourite
fish. I made a chicken stock based seafood sauce with capers and gherkin
pickels that I learned from Chef Lawday- the flavours worked perfectly and the taste
is very much like I am eating fresh caught pickerel, a fish that I miss from
northern Ontario waters.
Steph: Fruit salad. I know last month
I said fruit, but seriously, when the mangos are half as long as your arm and
so sweet eating too much could give you a toothache- how could I resist?!
Greatest accomplishment/ Coolest
thing this month:
Dave: I helped prepare and clean a
40Kg Electric Eel at work, this was a really cool thing to see and touch and
taste. 1 Kg is work 400 Nt or around 15 Cdn so for Taiwanese people it’s
actually a lot of money to spend on one dish. We roasted it, made soup and
grilled it very similar to the sweet glazed Anagi like the Japanese use in
Sushi
Steph: I stitched my afghan together!! Now I'm going in circles (err... squares) doing edging!
Favourite place you’ve visited/
Favourite thing you’ve done:
Dave: The Dragon Boat Festival was a cool
experience. In Sault Ste Marie they have a dragon boat festival every year and
use the money to benefit local charities. But the races here are all about national
pride and tradition and sticking to the way the boat races used to be with the
right que and chant and the synchronization and the determination to win is
really cool to watch. And even the respect given to the stating official at the
end of each race is very special too, with a salute and a ‘xie xie grand
marshall!’
Steph: The Dragon Boat Festival was
pretty cool, but I also loved our trip to the beach!
Thing you’re looking forward to most:
Dave: I am helping plan a 10 day trip
to Australia in December, Steph and I really need a vacation and its funny
because we are kinda in another country and some would say that’s a vacation
but we work full time all the time!
I just finished working all 30 days
in June and the first 6 days of July without a day off. Today is my day off my
first full Sunday off since April and right now I am typing this with Steph
making blue berry pancakes and watching Father of the Bride with Steve Martin
and Martin Short two awesome actors I have grown up watching and love how they
act on screen.
Steph: I feel like we’re on the
downward slide of our trip to Taiwan- as in we’ve passed the halfway mark and
are inching closer and closer to going home! It’s also graduation season so I’m
slowly checking off performances (literally one for every class I teach- two Kindy
and three HLS (upper levels))- we had one on Saturday, and Kindy is the 20th
of this month. I will be glad when they’re over, but I’m also kind of looking
forward to them in a way as well. Plus, like Dave said, we’re hoping to head to
the Land Down Under as a fifth anniversary trip and to visit our friends Rob
and Claire!
Favourite thing to watch: Waaaay too many episode
of Friends! The seasons fly when you watch the episodes 4 at a time!
Easiest thing to get used to:
Dave: Heat rash. Kitchens are
hot and sweaty places. My body has adjusted to the climate and I never knew I could
handle plus 41 heat in the kitchen. But AC and fans are also lifesavers!
Steph: I’d be lying if I said the
heat. But I have managed to steal a fan or two from various parts of the school
and plug them in so they blow directly on the NSTs! Plus, some of the Taiwanese
seem sooo much hotter than I am so I don’t feel as bad. This is how I described
it to Jenny “You know when you have something that’s really painful so you just
hold your breath, turn your head and try to think of something, anything else? Or
when it gets so cold outside that you just don’t even care what you look like
because you’re finally warm? That’s what summer’s like here. I move as slowly
as possible, have found my appetite decreased and the heat almost like being in
an uncomfortable situation. You kinda force a laugh (like Chandler’s work
laugh) and grit your teeth and just deal with it until it’s over.”
Something you’ve learned:
Dave: How to utlize rice wine vinegar to make sweet
apple BBQ sauce. The rice wine and apple works like apple cider when cooked
till soft. How to wash and prepare rice. Did you know its needs to be washed
and soaked a minimum of 5 times before being cooked?
Steph: I’m re-reading ‘One Thousand
Gifts’ by Ann Voskamp. In it she’s challenged to write a list of 1,000 things she’s
thankful for. While I haven’t set a limit for myself, I have been trying to
keep track of blessings I’ve seen in my life.
A couple from this month: “a surprise
conversation with a friend from far away.”
“knowing God never leaves us”
“early morning toddler cuddles before
class”
And now for the photos!!
A dinner date with Amanda! I don't know how to describe this meal other than hot pot without the pot!
Taking a break in the shade and waiting for the Dragon Boat festival.
Dragon Boat preliminaries.
Oh those toesies!!
Waiting for the races to start.
Dave doesn't even care that the boat is in focus and not him!
We often drive to the beach not to swim but just to wade and walk in the sand. We looooove it!!
Dave got to make pretzels with some of the kids from church. It was so much fun! And I got to speak Chinglish!
On our FIFTH anniversary!!
Fairly typical pose.
Close to the beach there's a field. I stop every time.
Taiwanese sun-kissed.
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