Ghost Month

Ghost Month has begun here in Taiwan. The Taiwanese believe that the gates of hell will be opened for the next month. The demons, spirits, ghost, and whatever else might hunt you will be released. What this means is there is a lot of things you have to do to fend off the demons.

Starting with of course, burning lots of paper money to them. It is very interesting walking around. I have seen a group of people at work in business suits standing in front of their company burning paper money. All over in front of different shops and homes you will see a table sitting by the street with 2 Liter Coke bottles, crackers, and other foods all with incense sticks stuck to them, sacrificing the food to the spirits. Later they will eat it themselves because of course the gods/spirits can't eat the food. Some other things you shouldn't do is whistle (because a ghost might follow you home), travel long distances or move to another house (the ghost might get into your home or cause you bad travels), don't swim or do other dangerous things that the ghost could use to harm you, don't get married, or do a lot of other things.

This is an interesting time in Taiwan. Many people get sick from the all the smoke from the constant burning of things.

http://www.lyberty.com/encyc/articles/ghostmonth.html

Round Island Trip - Taiwan

This last weekend, I took a 3 day road trip around the whole Island of Taiwan with another Missionary and his 2 interns.

The first day we headed to the southern point of Taiwan. We spent the night in the night market and the morning hanging out at the beaches before the tourist arrived.

We reached the very tip of the Island at this Lighthouse. Later that night we hit up a very busy night market.

This photo was taken behind McDonald's

We then headed out for the next location, driving most of the day until we arrived at our camping location. The night was spent sweating in my tent with little sleep and lots of heat!

The next day we went white water rafter on a class 0 river maybe class 1. Despite the lack of intensity and little risk of death or injury, we made the peaceful ride very fun, while entertaining the Taiwanese with our American culture.

As my legs burned sitting on another long drive, we stopped at the line known as Tropic of Cancer.

We then arrived in Hualian around 9. I finally enjoyed a nice hot American flavored pizza from Domino's. I haven't had pizza for 4 months. I enjoyed a 12" all to myself, eating every last bite. Also almost everyday we ate at McDonald's for breakfast.

While the guys rested from the long day, I headed out on the streets to skateboard and explore.

The next day we drove to Turkyo Ridge. Driving through the beautiful granite mountain ranges. Eventually we reached the top into the clouds, running from the heat into very cold raining weather.

At one point we had to wait 30min for them to clean up a landslide before we could continue.

The Clouds thickened up at the top of the mountians to the point we couldn't see much more then 10 feet in front of us at some points. Then within a few hours after driving through the mountains I arrived home around 3pm.

SYME - Ultimate Frisbee in the Rain

Another Day at the Office

Chinglish - Peck the Joy!

In a sense this could work, but the way they used it on the other signs you would know it wasn't right.

Weekend in Cheng Hua

Trying to win some fish - ring toss style

I went to ChengHua this weekend to spend time with an old student and to also check out the christian camp their church runs. The first night we arrived, we went to the night market something that becomes very common when living in Taiwan. (Photo: Turtle shaped food)

However we lost. So we went to the pet store. You can buy almost anything as a pet in Taiwan; crazy looking fish, tiny squarral like creatures, and sting rays, among other things.

We decided to go with the turtle.

It was a very hot day in Taiwan.

Even with the heat we played some "olympic" games  during the christian camp. Some which included water, asian style dodge ball and rock paper scissors. There was probably about 50 students that attended, I am not sure the numbers that didn't know Christ or accepted Christ from the week.

Chinglish - Rarebit

4th of July in Taiwan

Us American teachers decided to celebrate the 4th of July. We bought some fireworks and I called a Taiwanese friend to check on the laws. I was told to to it on the roof. Which went great for the first hour until a security guard made us stop. But it was fun celebrating while it lasted.

6:00am Skate Jam

Lady GaGa in Taiwan

Taiwan is going mad with the appearance of Lady GaGa. She is performing a free concert in a park about 30min walk from my house. The streets are filled with strange teenagers dressing up the best they can to look like Lady GaGa in one of her strange outfits. This is not something I am excited about.